The Dust of the Earth
by A Stern Glare
Summary: Esteemed Ozpin, I am distressed to announce that Perseus has been banished from Camp Half-Blood. I would request that you accept Perseus, or Percy as he pleads that I call him, into Beacon Academy. Without a doubt, Percy will entertain you, though I suggest you keep on your toes around him. He is...mischievous.
1. Chapter 1

Have you ever heard that (rather insensitive) joke that all old people know each other? Well, in a sense, it's very true, especially when it comes to teachers.

More specifically, Professors Chiron, and Ozpin, the men with only one name. Chiron and Ozpin had been in correspondence for what would be in Earth time, thousands of years, but was in Remnant, only twenty or so. Chiron spoke mostly about the heroes he trained, and he sent pictures of them in the envelopes (or in some cases, crates, for the more prehistoric photographs). His tales were long winded and generally somber, ending with a tragic death and a gorgeous young corpse, but the recent ones had become more...upbeat, one might say, and a single name began to stand out among the rest; Perseus, or more commonly, Percy.

The recent letters had gone along the lines of; _sigh_ , you'll never believe what Percy did today, he saved the world again. Percy has defeated Kronos, Percy preserved Olympus. Percy this, Percy that! It was enough to drive a grown man batty, and so it did. Soon Ozpin began compiling a list of things that he would do to Chiron or his precious disciple should he ever see either of them, and then his chance arrived, in the form of another incessant, rambling missive. But this was different. This letter was rushed and muddled, but still properly worded, despite Ozpin's sinking feeling that this strange red ink was blood.

Esteemed Ozpin,

 _I am distressed to announce that Perseus has been banished from Camp Half-Blood. The powers 'on high' have determined him to be a threat to the safety of the other campers after a training accident recently took a turn for the near fatal. Perseus was sparring with an older camper who had survived the most recent wars, and he inadvertently stabbed the young lady with his blade, resulting in massive injuries. Though there was no loss of life, Perseus has been deemed a danger and has been provided with two options for continued survival, total submission to Olympus, an affable idea, seeing as Perseus thrives on rebellion. The second was immediate expulsion from Camp Half-Blood, and as unfortunate as this prospect is, it was for the best, especially now that Perseus has travelled the world and refined his skills to their maximum potential here on earth. I would request that you accept Perseus, or Percy as he pleads that I call him, into Beacon academy so that he may train beyond the edges of his restraint in his current position. Your acquiescence would be most appreciated and Percy will be more than capable of keeping up with the curriculum, despite whatever may arise. Please consider and respond as soon as convenient, and if inconvenient, respond anyway._

 _Humbly Yours,_

-Chiron.

"As if I could refuse a request from Chiron, one of my oldest friends." Ozpin sighed emphatically, not noticing Glynda's stare, or at least bearing it no mind. "I need paper."

Chiron,

 _A student of yours is a student of mine, pardon my brevity, but the Vytal Festival is approaching._

-Ozpin

"Glynda, could you please have this letter sent to the usual address?" Ozpin asked dismissively, mentally preparing obstacles and tortures for the 'great hero of the new age' as Chiron once said. Ozpin had seen the rise and fall of many a hero and he had no intentions of allowing this hero to simply become an afterthought after all of the effort that Chiron put into the boy. "He will be the best." Ozpin whispered eerily.

"Professor Ozpin." The secretary of the ground floor called up. "You have a visitor, shall I send him up?"

"Yes please." The professor replied, and after a pause he continued. "Also, Meredith, take tomorrow off, your throat is far too sore for you to work."

"Um...I-thank you sir." Meredith responded, clearing her throat.

"I assume you were entertained by the letter?" Ozpin asked, without turning around to even glance at Glynda as she walked in.

"Yes, I was." Glynda replied tersely, not bothering to ask how Ozpin knew. He always knew.

"The Vytal Festival is in two days..." Ozpin muttered, his eyes scanning the schedule shown on his computer screen. "Perseus is going to be here tomorrow, would you kindly set him up with a dorm room, any room?"

He didn't look up, but Glynda knew he was talking to her. "I will set something up, but I'll need him in class soon."

Chiron,

 _Percy Jackson has arrived, and has already been assigned a new team, I know you'd like them, they're a group of teens with attitude, of which he'll be the fifth, if only Zordon were still here. I look forward to hearing from you again, and I hope that one day we will meet in person-_

"Professor Ozpin?" A rough, almost haggard voice asked. Ozpin looked up. Standing at the far end of his office were two young people, both exerting auras of power, but also of calm.

"You must be Mr. Jackson, I've heard a lot about you." Ozpin said mysteriously, his unnerving stare focused entirely on Perseus who looked like this sort of thing happened every day. Then Ozpin's eyes turned to the girl. "However, I was not awaiting a second pupil to be arriving with you."

"I'm Korra." The girl stated calmly, a relatively peaceful smile on her face. Ozpin raised an eyebrow and she continued. "I'm here on the orders of Monk Tenzin, I have letters."

Ozpin's stare didn't lessen, in fact, at the mention of Tenzin it increased. Tenzin and Ozpin's hadn't spoken in quite a while, and now he was sending Ozpin an Avatar. Perseus saw that Ozpin's glare was slowly darkening, and Korra shifted.

"My name's not Jackson, it's Nightshade." Percy stated simply, interrupting Ozpin's eerie staring. Then, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling, he continued. "I'm loving the whole 'emerald-clockwork-post-modern' thing, very chic."

"Nightshade, hm?" Ozpin smiled eerily, his mind quickly changing trains. "I've heard from Chiron that you had a friend that went by that same name, and she died."

"I have many friends that have died." Perseus muttered, his eyes turning dark.

"Like Annabeth?" Ozpin suggested offhandedly.

"You so shouldn't have said that." Korra said warningly, looking up in desperation.

Time and space shifted, contorting out of pure fear as Perseus disappeared from his current position and reappeared standing on top of Ozpin's desk, his sword out and glowing dangerously, mere inches from Ozpin's neck.

Glynda waved her riding crop in her hand, but the magic was batted aside by the aura of space distorting power that Perseus exuded, Korra was the next to react, drawing her staff, but she wasn't confident that she could win a fight against the now smoking Perseus.

"You may not deign to speak my angel's name. My eyes tell me that you have massacred thousands and your foolishness has led to the deaths of thousands more. You do not deserve to speak of her." The eyes that Perseus spoke of were currently glowing like Greek embers, smoking at their edges.

"I'm sorry Perseus, I truly am." Ozpin said, looking less repentant than piteous. "You loved her, and you lost her."

Perseus stepped off of Ozpin's desk, his sword recapped now. Glynda still stood in the corner, coiled so tight that a violin string would be slouching by comparison. "I'm sorry as well, I'm learning to control myself, but her name...it strikes something."

"This outburst will not be overlooked." Glynda asserted, stepping forward, gathering herself to her full height. "How do we know that next time you won't kill someone?"

"I'm sorry, what's your name?" Perseus asked, his gaze sharp.

"Professor Goodwitch." Glynda answered, her stomach in knots, staring down Perseus' endless eyes. "Glynda Goodwitch."

"It's nice to meet you, Glynda, and since only Ozpin knows of Annabeth, there won't be a next time, will there?" Perseus said nonchalantly. Korra cleared her throat and looked between Perseus and Glynda and then toward the elevator.

"I was told that I would be tested upon arrival, can we hurry this up?" Korra asked, her foot beginning to tap along to an unknown beat. Perseus nodded as well, and looked between the two teachers who guided them along to the elevator and down to the combat room. As the elevator descended, Perseus and Korra began to shoot each other looks, having a silent conversation. Ozpin looked between the two, trying to decipher what they were discussing.

"Chiron mentioned that you may be joining the Vytal Festival, and if so, then you will need two fellow teammates, unless you would like to combat four opponents at once?" The professor asked challengingly. Korra looked at Percy who simply shrugged and nodded. "I thought you might."

The elevator ride thereafter was short and tense, and ended much too slowly for some. Percy shoved his fists into his pockets and let his eyes wander in wonderment, as did Korra, Percy hadn't been in a city like this before, and he was enjoying it more than he thought he would. Korra was amazed at the strange architecture she was seeing, and was also looking for a place to eat.

"So, this is Beacon Academy?" Percy asked to himself. He turned on the ball of his foot and did a full three-sixty, checking the entire place out before spotting a group of eight people headed in the same direction as them. One person stuck out in particular to Perseus, a tall blonde girl with wild and untamable curly hair. "Which building is the fighting in?"

"The Amphidrome. You'll be expected there in five minutes, and you should arm yourself, you will be facing many opponents." Ozpin smiled, his voice flat.

"That sounds fun." Korra said sarcastically, causing Percy to sigh.

"We'll be there in three minutes, I just have to go grab a drink or something." He lied smoothly, taking a quick detour to meet up with the eight. He quickly caught up with the group and began to eavesdrop silently in their conversation.

"So, there's this huge Ursa, and like 5 Beowulf's, and me and Ren are surrounded, but then Ren whipped out his ninja moves and I just started swinging my hammer like crazy and we kicked butt and sold the pelts for money and bought pancakes!" The pink haired girl, Nora expounded. The rest of the group sighed like they had heard the story before.

"So, you just swing your hammer around?" Yang asked, looking uncertain.

"That sounds like a solid backup plan!" Perseus quipped, surprising the entire group. Jaune let out a quick yelp while Ren simply raised an eyebrow, his ninja senses had warned him of Perseus' approach. Percy tossed his arms over Jaune and Ruby's shoulders and walked between them, smiling. "I used to do that whole thing with the wildly swinging of weapons, it worked pretty well, but anyway, I'm Perseus, who're you?"

"I'm Ruby."

"Nora!"

"I'm Ren, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Um, I'm Jaune."

"I'm Yang, this is Weiss and Blake."

"Hello! I'm Pyrrha."

"I'm Korra!" Korra spoke up from the other side of the group, causing everyone (bar Perseus) to jump again, especially Blake, who was used to being able to detect people coming up behind her. "I'm Perseus' friend."

"Is no one going to ask why we're here, and what we're doing?" Perseus begged, pouting slightly. Yang took the bait.

"So, you come here often stranger?" She asked.

"Me and Korra are here for the sexy convention, just like you guys, and let me say." Here Perseus winked at Jaune and Yang. "I'm looking forward to the blonde division."

"I don't really-" Jaune began, but Percy interrupted him with a finger to his lips and a quiet hush.

"Don't worry, my feelings are entirely bromosexual." Percy whispered, his smile eerie.

"This is just adorable, really, but what are you doing here?" Weiss demanded, her voice firm as she gave Percy a look, Korra was still silently flirting with Blake. Percy and Korra shared a look before their faces became stone.

"Checking out the competition." Percy said calmly, any emotion that he was feeling had disappeared. "We're being given an entrance hazing, we're going to have to fight, I'm sure, and if so, then why not know who we're fighting."

"So you came here to find the weakest links, and now you're going to glide through the entrance exam?" Pyrrha asked, angry. Perseus' stone mask got colder. "That's dirty, it means you're nothing but a coward."

"Percy and I are far from cowards, we're just looking for interesting fights." Korra said, her calm facade fading. "It seems like we've found some nice, fun little battles. I'm looking forward to battling you Pyrrha."

The entire group's eyes went wide, and Pyrrha smiled menacingly. Despite Pyrrha's hesitance to flaunt her strength, she was not to be underestimated. Perseus eyed the weapons of the group and pointed at Ruby. "Is that a gun?"

"Yes…" Ruby said, pulling it out before hitting the on button. "It's also a scythe." Percy nodded and smiled at her with all of the awkward seductiveness he could manage. "You're freaking me out."

"Dang it! And that's my winning smile too!" Percy said sadly, sighing. "I'm looking forward to fighting you Ms. Rose."

"How do you know my name?!" Ruby asked, her eyes wide.

"It's written on the inside of your cape." Perseus said, smiling. "Just a side note. That's a freaking awesome cape! So please don't wear it during our battle, I'd like to have it when your corpse slowly drains of life."

Everyone eyed Perseus nervously, Ruby's hands began to shake, and Blake shivered. Yang's fists clenched. No one could throw around threats with that much ease unless they meant it, and Yang had to protect Ruby.

The Amphidrome was impressive. Perseus had to admit that he was thoroughly flummoxed by the architecture. "You know that we're going to need to win this battle, and there's only one way to do that."

"The Avatar State." Korra muttered. Perseus looked at her surprised for a moment and then shook his head.

"That's plan B! Plan A is teamwork!" Percy said seriously, tossing Korra her staff. Korra caught it and shrugged innocently. "Don't play dumb, you're not as good at it as me!"

"So, what's the plan? Other that teamwork?" Korra asked, her voice mocking. Percy smiled and began to explain…

"We are so screwed." Korra said as she stood across from Ruby and Pyrrha beside Perseus who was armed with a strange combination of a greatsword and a gladius. The blade was long and slightly leaf shaped with a crossguard that looked like human hands gripping the blade, and a handle that looked like a spine.

"Begin." Glynda said loudly, and the buzzer sounded.

Ruby swung her scythe so it faced behind her and fired off a shot, launching herself toward Percy who ducked under her swing, leaving Ruby heading straight for Korra, who quickly leapt up and swung her staff down, knocking aside Ruby's second swing. As this was happening, Percy headed toward Pyrrha, his sword drooping toward the ground. Pyrrha swung her short sword diagonally, planning to catch Perseus off guard, but he brought his sword up and blocked Pyrrha's blow, catching it in his crossguard as he slid beside her, dragging her to face away from Korra. Pyrrha withdrew her sword and lashed out with her shield, catching Percy across the face. As Percy slid across the floor, he caught a glimpse of Korra defending herself desperately from Ruby's onslaught. "Belay!"

Korra leapt up and over Ruby, rolling on the other side of her to avoid her scythe and came up behind Pyrrha who was quickly approaching Percy. Percy used a quick roll to knock Pyrrha off her feet, and then dashed toward Ruby. Pyrrha swung her sword at Percy's retreating form, but the slash was blocked by Korra's staff.

Pyrrha and Ruby naturally caught on, quicker that the rest of the audience. Both were now wary of attacks from two directions. As Ruby slashed and shot at Percy, becoming irritated by his haunting smile and his seeming ease with which he avoided her bullets, she finally snapped and unleashed her semblance on him, dashing past him, attempting to bat him aside with her magnificent speed, but instead, she found herself hurtling into Pyrrha. As she was about to run smack into her head, Pyrrha raised her shield and Ruby ricocheted off of it, leaping up into the air and firing three shots at Percy's new position, or where he was. Percy was currently joining Korra in the fight against Pyrrha, attacking from just far enough away that only Pyrrha was within sword length, and Korra was out of reach. They had experience working together, that much was positive. As Ruby landed, she ran toward Pyrrha, her scythe at the ready, until suddenly, she felt her scythe being pulled off path, sending her spinning out of control.

"Pyrrha! What was that!?" Ruby demanded, trying to regain her balance. Pyrrha shot her a look of confusion before Korra redoubled her attack, and Percy headed back toward Ruby.

"You should watch your back, it seems like Pyrrha's got a score to settle." Percy said ominously. He smirked and his sword knocked Ruby's scythe aside. "Maybe I'm not the biggest threat to you on this battlefield."

"Did you see Ruby's face when she came after you?" Korra asked, she had no confidence in the plan, but still, she had to try. "She looked like she hated you."

Pyrrha swallowed and her hand drooped just for a moment. Korra capitalized on this moment and swiped her staff across Pyrrha's head, knocking her off balance for a moment. "Belay?"

Percy nodded and jumped toward Ruby, ramming his shoulder into her and spinning around her, jumping over her scythe as she tried to stop him. Pyrrha turned around quickly, only at the last moment to see Percy disappear and feel all of her energy drain from her.

"Pyrrha Nikos has been eliminated." Glynda announced as Ruby felt the cold edge of a blade against her neck.

"Surrender." Percy growled, his blade already drawing pinpricks of blood. Ruby raised her hands above her head as she saw Korra step over Pyrrha's body. She couldn't allow it to end like this. She decided to draw her final trump card. She turned quickly and was about to fire a dust bullet at Korra when suddenly her scythe raised up and the dust bullet exploded uselessly. She sighed and suddenly the whole world went black.

"So, how did you do it?" Yang asked, looking down as Ruby dozed peacefully. Percy frowned and looked down at her, he held great admiration for her, and Pyrrha.

"Subterfuge." Percy said simply, Korra rubbed his shoulders and sighed as well. "I convinced Ruby that she couldn't trust Pyrrha and Korra did the same to Pyrrha."

"We mimicked their semblances, and using that, we used them against each other." Korra continued. Pyrrha was awesome in Korra's opinion, and Ruby had guts.

"We also used the Belay command. We knew that we were only going to do it once, and then we would use it as a distraction, but they didn't." Percy finished, he brushed some hair out of Ruby's eyes and looked mournfully between her and Yang. "I'm sorry. I didn't have to use that threat, but...sometimes there's a part of me...it's out for blood."

"Pyrrha!" Jaune hollered, busting into the infirmary without hesitation. Ren and Nora were soon to follow. "What happened to her?! How did you win?!"

"We lied, and we used tricks. If you want to recall our victory and have a fair fight, then you can rechallenge us if you'd like." Korra said guiltily, until she heard Pyrrha sat up, her head still blurry.

"Don't worry about it." She muttered, rubbing her temples lightly. "Tricks are weapons too." She looked at Percy with a hint of admiration and stuck out her hand for him to shake. "I look forward to facing you again, Perseus, you're one of the best opponents I've faced in a while."

As Ruby's eyes slowly opened, Professor Goodwitch stepped into the room and cleared her throat loudly. Team RWBY and JNPR both shot up, or as best as they could, Percy held Ruby down, keeping her from hurting herself, while Korra and Pyrrha were arguing with each other about her condition. "Team JNPR and RWBY, you may return to your rooms as soon as your teammates are healed up, Korra and Perseus, are to come speak with me."

"Whatever you have to say to us, you can say here, I trust these people, so please, go ahead and say your piece." Korra said, her hands on Pyrrha's shoulders. Percy nodded and his hand began to subconsciously brush through Ruby's hair.

"Mr. Nightshade, Ms. Sato, you two are going to need to either form a team out of two more hunters and/or huntresses, or you'll be split up." Glynda said calmly, her voice wavering slightly as she felt the oppressive auras of all of the strength in the room.

"If we- gods forbid, are separated from each other, would we have a guarantee that we would never have to fight each other?" Perseus asked, looking deeply into Glynda's eyes. She nodded slowly, and Percy smiled. "I'd like to be attached to either Team JNPR, or Team RWBY, these are good people and I want to stay with them."

"That sounds suspiciously like a plan." Ruby joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Um, it was one." Weiss said, in stereotypical-teenage-'duh' mode.

"And that was a joke." Blake said calmly.

Perseus whistled appreciatively and stepped back to see the four and laughed. Standing beside Pyrrha's bed, he almost looked like a normal teenager. "Thousands of comedians out of work and they do this for free!" Pyrrha gave a laugh and Jaune smiled as well.

"Ahem!" Professor Goodwitch interrupted, garnering the attention of team RWBY and JNPR. "You were going to let Mr. Nightshade unpack, were you not?"

"About that..." Perseus trailed off. "I don't have any clothes. I lost my luggage on the ship."

Nine people simultaneously looked down and sighed in exasperation, followed by one man's nervous laughter, and one girls awkward smile.

A few minutes later, ten people who had nothing to say, too tired, rode in an awkward silence for thirty floors in a cramped elevator. One of them, the tallest, began to whistle quietly.

"Please shut up." Weiss intoned. Her voice was bored, but there was also a stinging cold edge to her quip.

"Sorry." Replied the green eyed offender, just as the door 'dinged' open. The whole team, along with their newly appointed apprentice, marched calmly through the building, the doors sliding open soundlessly as they passed through them and began the trek home. At the hallway, Korra and Percy hugged and gave each other kisses on the cheeks, both exchanging knowing looks.

"So...bunkbeds..." Korra tried tiredly looking for a reaction from the rest of the team, hoping someone, anyone would smile. No one did. "Nevermind. I'll be comatose on the floor if you need me."

Team RWBY watched as she flopped onto his futon and her breath evened out, blissfully unaware, just as Blake wished she could be eventually, just like Weiss wished she were right now, and just like Ruby and Yang were slowly becoming.

"This is going to kill me." Weiss muttered.

In an entirely different universe, in a brightly lit room, occupied by only a typewriter, and a middle aged man, there began a soft clacking, and the man smiled at the ticker tape that emerged from the typewriter. "Oh Weiss...If only it would…" 

Meanwhile, in Team JNPR's room, Percy smiled at how near the beds were together, but without any energy to say a thing, he simply fell on his face on two of the beds and rolled onto the floor, stealing a couple covers and rolling himself up in a cocoon on the floor, already falling asleep.

Ren looked him over beside everyone else and took a deep breath. "I think that this room will suddenly become quite more interesting."

In the same brightly lit room as before, the man chuckled and nodded. "You're not wrong."


	2. Psych! The True Beginning!

Have you ever heard that (rather insensitive) joke that all old people know each other? Well, in a sense, it's very true, especially when it comes to teachers.

More specifically, Professors Chiron, and Ozpin, the men with only one name. Chiron and Ozpin had been in correspondence for what would be in Earth time, thousands of years, but was in Remnant, only twenty or so. Chiron spoke mostly about the heroes he trained, and he sent pictures of them in the envelopes (or in some cases, crates, for the more prehistoric photographs). His tales were long winded and generally somber, ending with a tragic death and a gorgeous young corpse, but the recent ones had become more...upbeat, one might say, and a single name began to stand out among the rest; Perseus, or more commonly, Percy.

The recent letters had gone along the lines of; _sigh_ , you'll never believe what Percy did today, he saved the world again. Percy has defeated Kronos, Percy preserved Olympus. Percy this, Percy that! It was enough to drive a grown man batty, and so it did. Soon Ozpin began compiling a list of tortur- err, things that he would do to Chiron or his precious disciple should he ever see either of them, and then his chance arrived, in the form of another incessant, rambling missive. But this was different. This letter was rushed and muddled, but still properly worded, despite Ozpin's sinking feeling that this strange red ink was blood.

Esteemed Ozpin,

 _I am distressed to announce that Perseus has been banished from Camp Half-Blood. The powers 'on high' have determined him to be a threat to the safety of the other campers after a training accident recently took a turn for the near fatal. Perseus was sparring with an older camper who had survived the most recent wars, and he inadvertently stabbed the young lady with his blade, resulting in massive injuries. Though there was no loss of life, Perseus has been deemed a danger and has been provided with two options for continued survival, total submission to Olympus, an affable idea, seeing as Perseus thrives on rebellion. The second was immediate expulsion from Camp Half-Blood, and as unfortunate as this prospect is, it was for the best, especially now that Perseus has travelled the world and refined his skills to their maximum potential here on earth. I would request that you accept Perseus, or Percy as he pleads that I call him, into Beacon academy so that he may train beyond the edges of his restraint in his current position. Your acquiescence would be most appreciated and Percy will be more than capable of keeping up with the curriculum, despite whatever may arise. Please consider and respond as soon as convenient, and if inconvenient, respond anyway._

 _Humbly Yours,_

-Chiron.

"As if I could refuse a request from Chiron, one of my oldest friends." Ozpin sighed emphatically, not noticing Glynda's stare, or at least bearing it no mind. "I need paper."

Chiron,

 _A student of yours is a student of mine, pardon my brevity, but time is of the essence, and there is panic spreading near and far in Remnant._

-Ozpin

"Glynda, could you please have this letter sent to the usual address?" Ozpin asked dismissively, mentally preparing obstacles and tortures for the 'great hero of the new age' as Chiron once said. Ozpin had seen the rise and fall of many a hero and he had no intentions of allowing this hero to simply become an afterthought after all of the effort that Chiron put into the boy. "He will be the best." Ozpin whispered eerily.

"Professor Ozpin." The secretary of the ground floor called up. "You have a visitor, shall I send him up?"

"Yes please." The professor replied, and after a pause he continued. "Also, Meredith, take tomorrow off, your throat is far too sore for you to work."

"Um...I-thank you sir." Meredith responded, clearing her throat.

"I assume you were entertained by the letter?" Ozpin asked, without turning around to even glance at Glynda as she walked in.

"Yes, I was." Glynda replied tersely, not bothering to ask how Ozpin knew. He always knew, it was disquieting.

"The Vytal Festival is in two days..." Ozpin muttered, his eyes scanning the schedule shown on his computer screen. "Perseus is going to be here tomorrow, but he can pose as an exchange student. If he's as good as Chiron says, he'll excel."

Chiron,

 _Percy Jackson has arrived, and will soon be assigned a new team, I have quite a few candidates in mind, and I know you'd like them, they're a group of teens with attitude, of which he'll be the fifth, if only Zordon were still here. I look forward to hearing from you again, Chiron-_

"Professor Ozpin?" A rough, almost haggard voice asked. Ozpin looked up. Standing at the far end of his office was a man, both exerting an aura of power, but also of calm.

"You must be Mr. Jackson, I've heard a lot about you." Ozpin said mysteriously, his unnerving stare focused entirely on Perseus who looked like this sort of thing happened every day. Then Ozpin's eyes turned to his clock. "However, I was not expecting your arrival so soon."

"Please, just Percy, and err- Nightshade." Percy stated simply, interrupting Ozpin's eerie staring. Then, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling, he continued. "I'm loving the whole 'emerald-clockwork-post-modern' thing, very chic."

"Nightshade, hm?" Ozpin smiled eerily, his mind quickly changing trains. "I've heard from Chiron that you had a friend that went by that same name, and she died."

"I have many friends that have died." Perseus muttered, his eyes turning dark.

"Like _Annabeth_?" Ozpin suggested offhandedly.

Fear, pure fear, fear like a tidal wave erupted from his pores as he disappeared and reappeared, planted firmly on Ozpin's desk, the glow of his sword casting eerie shadows on Ozpin's face from it's position below his chin. The room had dimmed in the instant that Perseus had slipped out of reality temporarily.

Glynda waved her riding crop in her hand, but the magic was batted aside by the aura of space distorting power that Perseus exuded, even the hardened huntress wasn't confident that she could win a fight against the now steaming Perseus.

"You may not deign to speak my angel's name. The winds whisper that you have massacred thousands and your foolishness and my eyes detect an age that has led to the deaths of thousands more. You do not deserve to speak of her." The eyes that Perseus spoke of were currently glowing like Greek embers, smoking at their edges.

"I'm sorry Perseus, I truly am." Ozpin said, looking less repentant than piteous. "You loved her, and you lost her, I know how that feels."

Perseus stepped off of Ozpin's desk, his sword recapped now. Glynda still stood in the corner, coiled so tight that a violin string would be slouching by comparison. "I'm sorry as well, I'm learning to control myself, but you must know what it's like to lose the only person in your world."

"This outburst will not be overlooked." Glynda asserted, stepping forward, gathering herself to her full height. "And how did 'the wind' whisper of these things?"

"I'm sorry, what's your name?" Perseus asked, his gaze sharp.

"Professor Goodwitch." Glynda answered, her stomach in knots, staring down Perseus' endless eyes. "Glynda Goodwitch."

"It's nice to meet you, Glynda." Perseus said nonchalantly. Ozpin cleared his throat and looked between Perseus and Glynda and then toward the elevator.

"Chiron has sent you at a very inopportune time, our first years have already had teams formed, and cannot be broken up or added to, meanwhile, we're beginning to receive many visitors from other Academies. You will not be assigned a team, however, you will be assigned a partner for combat training and most class projects, and you will be posing as a student from Vacuo. As you were hopefully informed, you are to be tested upon initiation into my Academy, and will be graded by this test, determining your sponsor team, however, only you and Ms. Goodwitch will know about this test, to the others, it is merely an appraisal of your skill."

"Ozpin, you can't be seriously considering going through with this?" Glynda interrupted. Perseus shot her a look and then looked to the Headmaster.

"Sounds fun."

The elevator ride thereafter was and tense, and ended much too slowly for some. Percy shoved his fists into his pockets and let his eyes wander in wonderment, Percy hadn't been in a city like this before, and he was enjoying it more than he thought he would. Meanwhile, Ozpin, and Glynda stepped purposefully in the direction of a large building vaguely reminiscent of a church in Perseus' mind.

"So, this is Beacon Academy?" Percy asked to himself. He turned on the ball of his foot and did a full three-sixty, checking the entire place out before spotting a group of eight people headed in the same direction as them. One person stuck out in particular to Perseus, a tall blonde girl with wild and untamable curly hair. "Which building is the fighting in?"

"The fighting will not be done yet, we'll be meeting in the Amphidrome. You'll be expected there in five minutes. You'll be tested in Ms. Goodwitch's class, and you would be wise to arm yourself, you will be facing great trials." Ozpin smiled mysteriously, his voice flat.

"The actual fighting will be several miles away. You'll be flying there after the announcement." This caused Percy to sigh, muttering under his breath.

"I hate flying."

As Percy continued to mope, mentally preparing himself for the upcoming feat of patience, he lost focus as he remembered the last time he had flown, as Blackjack splattered against the ground, and he was hurled through the underbrush. He felt a tear well up in his eye as he remembered why he was here…

Then he felt his world shift and he was on his back, staring up at a bubbly ginger haired girl wearing a strange black corset that continued along to her shoulders like a vest, and a white shirt with a heart-shaped hole near her cleavage. She smiled down at him and he responded in kind, though hesitantly, still getting over his sudden dip into unpleasant memories. As the ginger helped him up, he looked to see a group of seven others around him.

"You must be a transfer student!" The white haired girl with the scar on her eye asked.

"I suppose I must be?" He asked sassily, quickly rebounding from his slump.

"I'm Ruby!" The short caped girl piped up, smiling openly.

"Nora!" The ginger girl introduced herself.

"I'm Ren, it's a pleasure to meet you." The quiet long haired boy with the pink streak said calmly, bowing in greeting.

"Did you dye your hair like that? Very rebellious, I approve!" Perseus said in an attempt to break the ice.

"Um, I'm Jaune." The blonde, awkward boy said timidly. "And this is Pyrrha."

"Hello!" The tall, redheaded girl responded brightly.

"I'm Yang, this is Weiss and Blake."

"Hi..." Perseus' voice trailed off as he gazed longingly at Yang's hair, so reminiscent of his Wise Girl's. "I- ahem! I like your hair, you look really familiar."

"You certainly have a way with words." She deadpanned, smiling dryly, placing her hand on her hip. "And this is Weiss." She pointed to the white haired girl, her smile beginning to warm. "And Blake." She pointed to the black haired girl happily.

"I suppose that wasn't the best way to introduce myself?" Perseus asked frowning shyly.

"So, where do you hail from?" The white haired girl asked. Faux politeness hiding her curiosity. "What combat school do you come from?"

"You think I haven't worked hard to get here?" Perseus asked, he was smiling, but it wasn't a kind smile, it was the kind of smile you give to a child asking foolish questions. Weiss opened her mouth to respond, but Percy interrupted her. "I've fought for my life for years. I fought and killed my first monster barehanded when I was twelve, and from that day onward, it's gotten harder!" His voice crescendoed into a yell, before it quieted again. "So please, don't talk to me about _earning_ anything."

"No, I mean, where are you from?" Weiss asked, more defensive, causing Percy's eyes to widen and him to look around guiltily. He smiled hesitantly and opened his mouth.

"You killed it barehanded?" Jaune began, but Percy simply slumped over.

"I- uh, yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you, or sound too proud." Just as he said this, the bell rang on top of the building that still looked like a church to Perseus.

The entire group's eyes went wide. As the group began to hurry, Perseus eyed the weapons of the group and pointed at Ruby. "Is that a gun?"

"Yes…" Ruby said, pulling it out before, with a flick of her wrist, the weapon's shaft extended and the blade whirred into place. "It's also a scythe." Percy nodded and smiled at her.

"I want one." Percy whispered simply, staring in awe as he examined the weapon. "If I examine it, do you promise to not decapitate me?"

"I would never do that!" Ruby stated quickly, her eyes wide.

"I'm joking! But I would like to examine it." Perseus asked with another of those 'not happy' smiles that made people think twice about him. He ran his hand along the flat of the blade and smiled at the design before moving toward the shaft and finally to the trigger mechanism. "This is a beautiful machine, I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with it."

The Amphidrome was impressive. Perseus had to admit that he was thoroughly mesmerized by the architecture, despite his usual apathy about such things. "You all are probably wondering why you were called here in the middle of your classes. Well, let your wandering minds wonder no more. we have an assembly of new transfer students that I'm pleased to introduce you to. One particular student is the star pupil of a close friend of mine, his name is Percy Nightshade, and it is our duty to introduce him to the way that Beacon works."

Professor Ozpin stepped away from the podium and Glynda stepped up towards it, clearing her throat and speaking into the mic. "Today, all of the first and second year students are going to be performing a training exercise called The Gauntlet. This exercise will be held in the emerald forest, and is a test of teamwork, skill and strength. The exact rules will be provided to your scrolls upon arrival at the location, however, know this, this exercise is extremely dangerous, and if you do not perform at the peak of your abilities, you will not only fail, you will die." She took a step back and Ozpin returned to the microphone.

"And with that being said, good luck, and happy hunting."

"So, that's his weapon?" Cardin asked his team, looking scornfully at Perseus, sitting calmly across from him. Perseus scrounged through his bag and smiled occasionally, moving things around and then searching some more. "Wanna bet it's like that bunny-girl's weapon? That stupid box?"

"Totally." Sky responded, laughing along with all of Team CRDL. "This'll be fun, knocking this 'star pupil' around."

As Team CRDL contemplated this, a very uncomfortable looking faunus walked past them, looking around cautiously for a seat. "You need a place to sit?" Perseus asked. She looked at him shocked, he didn't look like anyone she recognized, but she hadn't been at the briefing. "Go ahead and sit here."

"Thank you." She responded quietly, he smiled and nodded, standing up for her to sit down. "I'm Velvet, of Team CFVY."

"Coffee?" Perseus asked, leaning back until he accidentally bumped into a dark haired girl wearing a brown beret with a thin coil of hair hanging beside her dark glasses. "Hi…"

"Hey Velvet, this guy bothering you?" The girl asked, eyeing Perseus suspiciously. Velvet shook her head vehemently and the girl calmed down. "I'm Coco."

"Perseus. I'm a transfer student." He smiled and stuck his hand out to shake, but Coco just looked him over until the airship suddenly lurched, nose down.

As the airship came to a stop, Perseus stepped out first and looked down at the strange contraption that they called a scroll here, and looked it over, pressing the button and seeing the map show up, showing him where he was and where the airship was on a topographical map, along with lots of bright lights inside the airship. Finally, a single word showed up on the scroll, one he could read, even with his dyslexia, a strange feat. _Imagine a giant game of tag, and three teams are it and trying to tag you, your standing will be determined not only by combat, but by evasion. Good Luck_.

"Run...I can do that." He frowned thoughtfully and looked around, spotting some dense shrubbery just ahead. "Yeah, I can definitely do that." Then, just as he was about to close his scroll, a timer showed up, reading five hours. _Evade capture for five hours…?_

He began to run, and soon, the teams from the airship were doing the same, chasing him. He leapt into the forest and ducked into the bushes as two teams passed him, heading west. He stared up into the sky and saw the moon and thought to himself. _What would Artemis do?_

 _Win._

"That's easy for you to say…" He retorted to himself, until he caught a bird fluttering and land beside him, dropping a daisy by his knee. "Okay, I'm going to take that as a sign."

As Perseus stepped out of the bushes, he noticed that his footsteps had suddenly become much quieter, and his breathing was hushed and steady. His eyes were sharper, and his surroundings began to slow down. He stopped right in the middle of the clearing as he heard a loud, guttural growling coming from the tree line. "Shit."

He leapt to the side as a huge paw swung right through where he just was, but as he jumped to the side, he was already reaching into his bag, grabbing at whatever weapon was handy, which happened to be a sawn off shotgun. He fired off two rounds into the huge bear beast and watched as it stumbled back in surprise, staring down at the huge hole that now gaped in its chest. "Ha! Suck it!" He stuck the gun back in his bag and smiled proudly, turning to face four smiling teens wearing various types of armor and clothing. "You too?" They drew their weapons and he frowned. "Of course."

The four attacked in tandem, swinging melee weapons at Perseus with efficiency and grace that spoke of blood, sweat and tears poured into training. Percy weaved in and out of their range, occasionally having to slam to the ground and roll between his opponents' legs to stay fighting. Finally after a series of delaying tactics and evasion techniques, fatigue set in. There was no time to delay anymore, Perseus had to step it up.

A sudden squeal from the woods drew the huntsmen's attention as they turned to face the boarbatusk. The hog charged at the group of five, causing them to scramble out of its path. While the beast rolled past, Perseus drew a simple fist sized object out of his bag, pulling the pin and running for it. _I'm sorry._ He thought morosely as he ran away from the concussive blast behind him.

He never found this out, but the concussion blast from his grenade killed the boarbatusk as he was confident it would, but it also left the team with a roaring migraine and a hesitance that wouldn't go away for a while.

Perseus looked around and began to run towards the cliffs in the distance. As he ran, he began to notice a faint scent of roses that followed him around, but occasionally, he'd see a rose petal, so he'd just ignore it as simply the wind. Soon, he hit more obstacles, and he could hear someone following him, so he took a few breathes, closed his eyes, and looked deep into the woods and allowed his feet to do the work. He leapt over shrubs, across small streams, rolled under fallen trees and low branches and kept his head down, his eyes forward, and his ADHD in complete control, until he saw her again. The girl had introduced herself as Yang, but he could only see his Annabeth when he looked at her, her hair and her general form, along with her fair skin and strong, but gentle features. He drew a rifle from his bag and fired off two shots and blew the brains out of two of the bears, causing them to collapse, and the blonde to look around in confusion after she had finished with the third of the bears, but by then, Perseus was long gone again.

The game continued for a while this way. Perseus kept moving, using the path of most resistance because he was sure he was being followed. Occasionally, Percy would stop and listen, but the blessing was wearing off. His legs felt like lead and it was beginning to get dark. Ozpin watched the entire game with mounting interest, Perseus would soon acclimate to Remnant's _Mythos._ The atmosphere around the entire planet constricted abilities to within _perceivable_ limits. Magic was a nearly foreign concept within this world, and someone observing the use of magic would raise not only suspicion, but also encourage those lurking in shadows of civilization. The White Fang, the unsavory anarchist criminal sects, like Torchwick, and those with-...darker motives.

Ozpin just hoped that Perseus would be so cooperative.

Percy had no plans to follow those rules, it just wasn't in his nature.

The roses made sense soon though, it was a certain red-head's semblance. Ruby had been following Percy from a distance and had called for backup, and soon, Blake was on Perseus' tail as well, running alongside a pair of copies, prepared to cut Perseus off at any pass they could find. Meanwhile, another red-head, coming from another direction, was also just as prepared to cut off the ebony haired warrior.

Then the fecal matter made temporary conflict with the rotating oscillator, and they became rather well acquainted…

Jaune had the worst luck in the world, it was a well known fact, but he didn't want to accept it, he just hoped that he was coincidentally...involved. Percy and Jaune collided, quite spectacularly, and Percy flew forward a few yards, while Jaune rolled to a quick stop mere feet away. Then the two redheads attacked, and Blake and Jaune covered the flanks, making sure Perseus didn't run. Perseus' eyes scanned the forest around him, and discovered himself cornered. "Fuck."

"Please come peacefully. I don't want to harm you." Perseus looked around, spotting oncoming backup, and frowned. He put his hands in the air and sighed, until suddenly he felt something hard and sharp hit him in the chest and he lurched over, heaving. He looked down at his chest and noticed something sticking out of his stomach. An arrow. He stood up straight and growled in pain, rolling his shoulders as his shirt began to get warm and stick to his chest. He rolled his shoulders once and jerked the arrow out in one tug. The pain nearly made him collapse, but he stayed standing, despite the black spots dancing in his vision. He took a ragged breath and reached into his bag with a firm image in his mind. Backbiter. "I surrendered, and then you shot me, that's dishonorable. If you forsake honor, then so shall I."

His hand sank into the bag, and he felt the ambient heat sink into his skin as he gripped the hilt of the blade that had mocked his dreams for years. He pulled it out of the bag and a savage grin lit up his face. He reached in again and pulled out a circular shield that spanned his entire arm. "For Athena."

He charged toward Pyrrha and swung Backbiter so near her front that a bit of her cape was snipped off as she fell backwards. He followed through for a full spin and swung Backbiter down, the blade slamming into her shield, jarring her arm, and causing the ground around them to rumble. Team RWBY began firing on Perseus, as Jaune, and Ren sprinted to Pyrrha's aid.

"Guns?! Pathetic!" Perseus snarled, charging at Weiss, his shield protecting him from oncoming gunfire as he leapt into the air and slammed his blade into the ground where Weiss had just been standing. But even as she slowed to a stop a few meters away, Perseus was upon her, his sword slicing through the air and colliding with Myrtenaster, deflected to the left as Weiss stepped into Perseus' guard and tried to swipe across his chest with her rapier, but was instead sent reeling back, an indent of Backbiter's pommel currently forming on her forehead.

"Weiss!" Ruby yelled, stepping forward, firing more quickly at Perseus as he gripped the heiress by her collar and pulled her toward him, headbutting her with enough force to knock her out.

Blake dashed forward next, but Perseus was done with his current weapon. He thrusted the blade into the ground and hurled his shield at Ren who was approaching him from behind. He reached into his bag again and pulled out a Spartan helmet, a long shafted trident and a burnt, bronze gauntlet.

He charged to meet Blake and slammed straight through her first copy, using his Spartan Helmet as a battering ram. He slid to a stop, digging his feet into the soft soil and turned to meet her, head-on. Blake fell from above him and slammed the flat of her blade across the Greek's ribcage, causing a couple cracks. As she prepared to leap back and then come in for another pass, Percy wrapped his gauntlet clad hand around her neck and glared into her soul with his glowing green eyes. "If you're going to hold back, you should have become an actress."

Before he had noticed, Percy was thrown back by a heavy punch that Yang threw into his chin. The soon-to-be huntsman landed flat on the back and slid for a few seconds before he caught himself and stood, but he was beginning to sway, and then the two teams noticed his shirt.

The formerly bright orange shirt was now a disgusting brown, and drips of Percy's life-blood flowed down his jeans. Jaune hissed in sympathy while Pyrrha gasped in surprise. Yang was looking at Percy in surprise as he coiled up and threw his trident with pin-point precision, as it slammed into a tree, Ruby's cape in tow. Ruby yelped as she was pulled along and crashed into the tree. Jaune gulped and stood, stepping hesitantly toward Perseus.

"Percy, you're seriously hurt, you need medical attention. You shouldn't be fighting in this shape. Please-" Jaune was cut off as Perseus slammed his gauntlet bound fist into his chest, causing him to wheeze and collapse. As the black slowly encroached on his vision. Yang bounded forward, her eyes red, and then she hurriedly skidded to a stop, falling back as Perseus collapsed on her, nearly dead.

"That happened..." Yang muttered.

As Percy's eyes slowly opened, Professor Goodwitch sat up in the seat beside him, leaning forward with her riding crop in her left hand and a scroll in the other. "Three hours."

Perseus sighed and resigned to his fate as he turned to the rest of the room and Glynda cleared her throat loudly. Team RWBY and JNPR both shot up, or as best as they could, Percy tried to sit up but Ruby held him down, keeping him from hurting himself, while Weiss and Pyrrha were arguing with each other about Weiss' condition. "Team JNPR and RWBY, you may return to your rooms as soon as your teammates are healed up, and Perseus, we need to talk."

"Whatever you have to say, you can say here." He said, subdued to his failure, propping himself up on his elbows. Percy nodded and his hand began to subconsciously brush across his scars.

"Three hours. You evaded capture for three hours...after the necessary five hours. Mr. Nightshade, you are going to be joint attached to both team JNPR and team RWBY, however, you will not be able to compete with these teams in the upcoming Vytal Festival unless you're substituting for another of your teammates, or in the two on two match." Glynda said calmly, her voice unwavering as she felt the oppressive auras of all of the strength in the room. Percy's eyes widened in joy as he leapt up out of the bed, ignoring the pain, jumping on the bed twice before sitting back on the bed from the harsh looks of both Glynda and Ruby.

"I'm okay with that. I came to train, not compete." Perseus stated, clearing his throat and looking deeply into Glynda's eyes. She nodded slowly, and Percy smiled. "I'm glad I was attached to Team JNPR, and Team RWBY, these are good people and I want to stay with them."

"Wait." Ruby interrupted. "What about that arrow?"

"Yeah, he went completely berserk after he was shot, do you know what it was?" Weiss asked.

"We have a team working on that, we'll tell you when we learn anything." Professor Goodwitch said assured.

"About that..." Perseus trailed off. "I'm so sorry about that. I don't know what happened. One minute, you were there, and the next, I just...I didn't see you. I saw...people from my past, and I lost it."

"It's a common occurrence. The staff believe that you went into shock." Glynda answered clinically.

A few minutes later, ten people who had nothing to say, too tired, rode in an awkward silence for thirty floors in a cramped elevator. One of them, the tallest, began to whistle quietly.

"Please shut up." Weiss intoned. Her voice was tired, but there was also a stinging cold edge to her quip.

"Sorry." Replied the green eyed offender, just as the door 'dinged' open. The whole team, along with their newly appointed apprentice, marched calmly through the building, the doors sliding open soundlessly as they passed through them and began the trek home. At the hallway, Percy hugged each of his new teammates, much to the consternation of both Ren and Blake, both exchanging knowing looks.

"So...bunkbeds..." Percy tried tiredly looking for a reaction from the rest of the team, hoping someone, anyone would smile. No one did. "Nevermind. I'll be comatose on the floor if you need me."

Team RWBY watched as he flopped onto his futon and his breath evened out, blissfully unaware, just as Blake wished she could be eventually, just like Weiss wished she were right now, and just like Ruby and Yang were slowly becoming.

"This is going to kill me." Weiss muttered.

In an entirely different universe, in a brightly lit room, occupied by only a typewriter, a faceless figure and a middle aged man, there began a soft clacking, and the figure smiled at the ticker tape that emerged from the typewriter. "Oh Weiss...If only it would…" 

Meanwhile in Team JNPR's room, the four of them shared a silent conversation about Percy, each with a different opinion, and while none were spot on, none were wrong either.

Ren looked him over beside everyone else and took a deep breath. "I think that this room will suddenly become quite more interesting."

In a different brightly lit room than before, an Asian young man with a bit of a baby face shook his head in hesitant agreement, typing away at his own computer. "You're not wrong."


	3. Yay! Sexual Tension!

"They're here." Arachne's eyes opened manically as she scuttled across the ceiling, one of her spiderwebs had been tripped and she needed to alert the Mistress. "They're here, they're here, they're here!"

"Yes! I heard you the first time!" The Mistress replied tiredly. The nightlife of Vale was too mundane for her tastes. The things that went bump in the night weren't the hounds of hell, but the rats and roaches. She needed more evil in her life. "I need a vacation...Or a cataclysmic disaster. I loved those."

"Milady, I ask that you let me meet them first. Allow me to test them." Prometheus asked concernedly. He looked between the lady in black and the door and realized that this could be a bad idea. "There is the possibility that they could be the power that you have found."

"Ah, Prometheus, your fear is entertaining, but it's time for you to let mommy do the talking." The Lady of Night stepped onto the air that hung just below her dais and drifted to the floor, gracefully tiptoeing her way to the door where Arachne hunched, murmuring kill, kill, kill, over and over again. "Arachne, go knit something."

"But how many times did I say it after you heard? Maybe you heard one of my fir-"

"Shhh. It's okay doll, go make yourself a nice little sweater, hm?" The pale white skin of The Lady's arm slithered it's way around the shoulders of her eight-legged friend. "I have an appointment."

Two stories below, a woman wearing a backless red dress and high heels sat at a table which held only a chess set and a tea set. She glanced silently at the unnaturally darkened corners of the room and smiled challengingly. "It's impolite to leave a lady waiting."

"I could say the same for you. I've been waiting for half an hour." Nyx said as she emerged from behind Cinder and placed her head on the table. When she reached the other side of the table, Nyx picked up her head and placed it back on top of her neck. "Neat party trick, right?"

"I'll admit, I'm curious, and slightly put off." Cinder replied, stifling her emotions and swallowing subtly. "Anyway, I need to know why you believe that we should work together."

"Then you'll have to ask. There wasn't a question in that whole last paragraph. Not even in narration." Nyx said mischievously. She then turned to the author and stuck her tongue out, confusing Cinder immensely. "And you really thought that these four walls could hold me?"

"I don't understand." Cinder said with painful hesitance. She hated not understanding. "Why do you think that you and I should work together? And what were you saying earlier?"

"I think we could work together because I alone am immensely powerful, and you have an army. I could supply you with everything you need to wreak havoc, and you have this tiny little bit of something else beside where your soul should be and it honestly turns me on."

Cinder began to get the feeling that this asset would be more hassle than she'd be worth. Perhaps it was time for her to draw the glove. Another soul would hardly be a burden, especially one so powerful. "Perhaps you could demonstrate this power so that I can determine if I truly need your power."

"Is this enough?" Nyx asked, gesturing to an oncoming horde of what appeared to Cinder to be Grimm. Loping hounds growled as dozens of glowing red eyes narrowed at Cinder.

Their primal minds, lacking direction or coherence assorted itself hastily into a rough idea. Food. They raced toward Cinder, their gaping maws loosing resounding howls, summoning fear from the depths of Cinder's heart.

"Ah ah ah! No! Bad boys." Nyx said sternly, causing the four hounds to skid to a stop and whine furiously for a few seconds before lying down and beginning to snore. "Now, tea?"

Cinder nodded and gulped slowly. There was no avoiding the sinking dread that settled like concrete into the pit of Cinder's stomach. What would Salem do?

Not get in bed with this godforsaken she-devil.

"Now that's just rude!" The woman gasped from across the room, pouting at Cinder as she took a sip of tea that appeared to be aflame. "I'm not a she-devil! I'm a goddess."

Cinder's stomach fell, but she held her facade like a pro. This woman held the intents of Grimm in her hands, and could apparently move them to her whim. She was not to be spited. The goddess leaned forward and moved a single piece on the board, the black queen.

Checkmate.

Percy leapt from his bed with the practiced grace of a pachyderm and the elegance of a drunk giraffe. He expected to leap to a standing position with his blade poised for combat.

Instead, he slammed into the ground in a bundle of sheets and blankets, his butt up in the air as he glanced around the room and felt into his pockets. He was still wearing his jeans from the other day, and Riptide and the other pen were both there still, but unfortunately, he looked around and realized that he was in a strange purgatory between the Isles of Blest and the Fields of Erebus, surrounded by beautiful girls, each fast asleep, except for one. A tense ravenette with her nose in a book and stifling a chuckle sat across from him, her eyes glowing in the dim moonlight.

"What time is it?" Percy asked quietly, slowly untangling himself as quietly as possible from his bundle of blankets in the middle of the floor. Blake looked at the clock on her bedside. She held up four fingers, then two fingers, then three. "Four twenty-three?" She nodded.

Percy sighed to himself and finally pried himself off of the floor and to his feet. His chest was uncovered except for a chiseled swimmer's build and a buffet of scars of different kinds. He looked across at Blake, noting her gaze and waved his hand in front of her face before smiling hesitantly. "What did you say?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to go for a run with me." Percy asked calmly. Blake looked down at the Yukata she was wearing and shrugged to show that she didn't quite feel prepared, but Percy had ignored her, tossing her a pair of his running shorts. Blake cringed at the thought of the teasing she'd undergo should Yang find her in a boy's shorts, but she felt like the run might do her good, so she sighed and stood from her bed as Perseus turned and pulled on a shirt, causing internal Blake (slutty Blake) to moan emphatically; _Nooo…_

Blake pulled off her yukata and slid into the shorts, surprised to find them almost as breezy as a skirt. Sure, Blake enjoyed the comforting snugness of tight clothes as much as the next girl. _Probably more._ Thought slutty Blake, but it was nice to have something so loose that didn't have the constant risk of panty shots. As Perseus pulled up his shorts. _Aww...I missed his ass._ Blake stuffed her feet into some socks and a pair of running shoes before the pair began to leave the building.

"So, where do you usually run?" Perseus asked, and Blake smirked at the ironic depth of that question, but instead of the foreboding and revealing: _away_ , she merely nodded for him to follow her. As they continued on the path circumventing all of Beacon, Blake began to notice something. As she felt fatigue begin to seep in, causing her to pant and sweat, Percy began to hum a jaunty tune, looking like he could continue for quite a while farther. "What's wrong?" He asked, noticing her vexed growl. She shook her head and decided to up the ante.

Blake took two deep breaths, hating herself already for the pain that she would go through after this run, and tore off in a headlong sprint, grinning madly at the thought of Percy trying to keep up. After rounding a couple of corners, Blake slid to a stop, plopping on the floor and massaging her groaning muscles. She smirked as she waited for the other raven haired boy to appear, expecting to get her rest now before she had to dash again, only for the boy to come sprinting around the corner as she slid down the wall. Percy wasn't nearly as fast as Blake, but from the look on his face and the light sheen of sweat _**That wasn't there,**_ it was obvious that this boy had stamina unlike any she had ever seen. How was he not sweating?!

"Woah! You really threw me off there for a second! I was wondering if I'd ever catch up. Thanks for waiting for me." Blake stared for a moment, trying her best to retain eye contact, but it wasn't easy when she was being blessed by the sight of a veritable Greek god (not that she knew what the term even meant, being from Remnant), stripping off his shirt and offering it to her as a sweat rag. His chest was heaving as Blake stared at his rippling muscles and resisted the urge to stroke his abs. Slutty Blake spoke up: _Aw, look but don't touch!? That's no fun!_

Regaining her composure and taking Perseus' shirt, finding it not only dry, but smelling unnaturally clean, like the beach, Blake looked up and down the boy and gave one passing remark. "You're not human, are you?"

Percy blinked twice and smiled, plopping down in front of Blake before shooting her a winning smile. "What gave it away?"

Blake frowned and asked hesitantly. "Faunus?"

Percy racked his brain, while trying to keep a straight face, digging for the definition of Faunus before he remembered. "No! Not like that, sorry to get your hopes up, but it's nothing that cool. I'm just a bit...different."

"Miss Belladonna." A voice called from a few meters away, causing the hair on the back of Blake's neck to stand on end. "I see you and Mr. Nightshade are getting very well acquainted. And on his first day too. My Mr. Nightshade, you do move fast."

Blake's face flushed as she examined their position. The two of them in a rather dim corner of Beacon, panting and sweating, one of them shirtless. No wonder the headmaster made the assumption he did. Percy took longer to understand Ozpin's connotations, but soon, he too was hurriedly standing, stepping away from the wall while lifting Blake up like she weighed next to nothing. He stammered for a moment before immediately going on the defensive with the textbook argument starter. "This isn't what it looks like."

Ozpin smiled vaguely as he watched the two students squirm. Percy looked down before his face contorted and he held up his finger, turning away from the pair, he sneezed loudly. So loudly, in fact, that the two near him felt a tremor through the ground. He sneezed again and Ozpin actually had to clench Blake's shoulder to keep her from falling. Finally, Perseus leaned his head back and said with a sniff. "I'm really sorry. This usually only happens when I'm around cats. Drive my allergies crazy."

Ozpin smiled knowingly at Blake as her eyes widened and her bow twitched slightly. She prepared her already sore legs to run as soon as Percy realized, but instead of saying anything, he simply smiled at them, his voice nasally as he said simply. "Anyway, back to the run?"

The looks the two received from the early risers were hilarious. Headmaster Ozpin, a new exchange student, and Blake Belladonna, one of the eight participants in the epic food fight that happened only a month ago walking down the main avenue. Two of them were wearing men's running shorts while the third smiled, holding his cane in one hand, and his usual black jacket in the other, slung over his shoulder. He smiled down at the two students as they tried their best to avoid the gazes of their fellow early risers.

"So...How was he?" Yang asked, nudging Blake's side as they sat in combat class. The two people in the ring clashed quickly, both relatively evenly matched. Blake grimaced, she knew that was going to happen. Yang would leap to conclusions, rumors would spread, and Percy and she would have to flee Vale and change their names to escape her nearly unlimited gossip reach.

"I don't know what you're talking about. We went for a run, he offered me pants, and I took them." Blake retorted, holding out hope that Yang would find someone far more interesting to distract.

"You're still wearing them."

"Shut your filthy whore mouth. These things are so damn comfortable."

"You do realize Yang will never let you live this down." Weiss intoned. Blake nodded dejectedly, and as the match ended, the next fighters were called.

"Percy Nightshade and Yang Xiao Long." Professor Goodwitch called, her usually grim face twitching a smile. Yang grinned and hopped to the stairs, followed closely by Percy who looked like he was about to hyperventilate.

"I am the Son of the Sea and the Bane of all monster. I have subjugated the expanses of the depths and I am so totally turned on by her right now." He murmured to himself. Blake's eyes widened slightly as she considered the possibility of Percy and Yang.

 _Ooh, maybe you three could get together sometime_ Slutty Blake suggested. _We could totally swing both ways._ Blake shook her head and tried to focus. As the two armed themselves, Yang cocking her gauntlets and Percy drawing a pair of batons out of his bag, Glynda stepped back, activated the shield around the arena and signaled for the auras to be displayed on the board, only for Percy's face to appear with only a single blinking question mark. Glynda hesitated, but Yang had no intention to wait for the fight to begin.

Yang went in for the quick kill, throwing a killer right hook toward Percy's head, or at least, where it was. Percy had apparently had the same idea, and was now where Yang had stood, drawing his baton out of the crater that it's impact had left. Yang's eyes went wide, and she went into a tighter, more defensive stance, circling Percy as he twirled his batons with ease, silently willing Yang to come closer. Yang hopped around on her feet for a moment before sprinting towards Percy as he held his batons up for a second before dropping them. As soon as Yang saw that, she grinned until Percy's fist buried itself into her stomach, causing her to cough violently.

"The weapon has changed." A voice spoke in the ring, coming from the arena announcer. Yang kept near the fist and as Percy drew back for another blow, Yang swung her leg around, knocking Percy onto one knee, where he shoved his elbow into Yang's knee, knocking her to the ground as well. She tackled him to the ground and raised her hand to pummel his face before she found her hand deflected into the ground beside Perseus as he held his baton against Ember Celica. He quickly flicked his wrist, swiping the baton into Yang's cheek, knocking her off of him as he hurled himself into the air, stepping away from his opponent as she stood up slowly, still dazed, and stepped beside his bag, drawing out of it a thick, lever action shotgun with a rounded stock. "The weapon has changed for the final time."

"What the-?" Yang began, before having to dodge a shot from his shotgun as Percy whirled around and fired another shot, clipping her shoulder with a sickening thump, but instead of crying out in pain, Yang just smiled wider, charging Perseus again with her hands guarding her face from the blows as Perseus fired shot after shot into her stomach, causing her hair to begin to glow. As she looked over her gauntlets, she saw Percy's previously narrow eyes widen as if he was suddenly shaken out of a haze, but too late, Yang slammed her fist into his chest, firing Ember Celica straight into his ribs. As Percy tumbled back, flipping end over end as he continued near the barrier of the ring, only to stop suddenly as he extended his body and stopped in a handstand and flung himself towards the busty brawler. Without missing a beat, she swung her leg in a strong arc, slamming her heel into his temple, drawing a symphony of 'oooh's and ouch's' from the stands. No one gets up after a hit like that, but Perseus slowly, painfully, almost pitifully dragged himself up to a kneeling position, his face hidden by the shadows of his hair. As he looked up, his opponent stood stunned for a moment, seeing his face covered in a huge spurt of blood forming behind his ear and splattered to his nose. He stood up, flipped his hair out of his eyes and smiled, staring deep into Yang's eyes.

"Take me. Take me right here, right now." The green-eyed Greek said with a husky edge to his voice. Yang's eyes turned lustful and she grinned even wider, hopping around from foot to foot, her blood really pumping and heat boiling up inside her stomach. They both charged forward, opting towards hand to hand combat without firearms of any kind. Yang threw accurate punches like there was no tomorrow, and Percy responded in kind, ducking, weaving, occasionally putting in a quick jab or elbow blow here or there, but the adrenaline was fading while the aura levels had not. Yang finally decided to end this fight quick and lashed out with her fist towards Percy's head, but instead of the sudden resistance she expected, she was met with a sudden reversal, Percy guided her hand away from his face and across her body, leaving her whole right side open to a vicious roundhouse kick to the ribs. Yang took it in stride and as she spun, she used her momentum to leap up into the air and slam her fist down into her opponent's shoulder, only for him to once again guide her blow away, placing her slightly off balance and catching her leg under his armpit before sensually dragging his fingers along her slightly tanned skin with a feathery touch, causing goosebumps to form on her skin as the heat in her stomach reached an all time high.

"Keep doing that, and I might just." Yang growled, her face flushed. Glynda watched on with disappointment at her students' libido driven antics. Without a second thought, Perseus ducked down and swiped at Yang's other leg, knocking her onto her butt. Finally, Yang's aura dropped into the red, causing Glynda to call the match. As Percy helped Yang slowly rise to her feet, her shins throbbing, Yang grabbed him by the collar, pulled him close and whispered into his ear: "The east roof, nine o'clock. I'll be the best you've ever had."

Percy panted for a few seconds before he grinned broadly and hefted Yang up onto his shoulder and paraded her around the stage for a few seconds before yelling into the stands loudly. "Are you not entertained?"

Team RWBY and Team JNPR sat in astonishment as Percy placed Yang back on the ground and promptly collapsed, a puddle of blood forming around his head as he slowly lost consciousness. Yang cradled his head and felt at his temple, pulling her hand away damp and bright red before she tried to lift him and carry him to the infirmary, only to collapse once again, unable to stand after the blows she took to her legs. She stared up at Glynda, terrified as the teacher quickly leapt down to the coliseum floor and hefted both Percy and Yang up into the air before hurriedly stomping towards the campus hospital.

As Percy slept, dreams plagued him, but for once, they weren't inherently bad dreams, in fact, they were more like prophetic visions, tidbits of conversations, past present and future.

" _She said that she's a goddess. With her control over grimm, I'm hesitant to question her word."_

 _"Roman, Roman, Roman, need I remind you what's at stake if you don't help me? Poor Neo would be all alone if you weren't there for her"_

 _"Something's not right with this grimm. The only thing that works against it is pure dust explosives. Nothing else even seems to touch them."_

 _"Ah ah ah! We can't have you knowing too much Percy. How about I just put the fear of gods into you. Open your eyes and scream at the oblivion."_

Suddenly, just as fast as the dream began. It changed, gone was the drifting feeling of darkness, instead, Percy stood atop a tower with a darkly clad woman's head beside his on his shoulder, staring out into the pure chaos that overtook the entire horizon. "Ahh, nothing like a good apocalypse to really stretch the muscles." The woman said whimsically, suddenly standing between Percy and the destruction that brought up a feeling of guilt. "Look at what you could have."

The woman waved her hand and showed Percy a picture of a smiling Annabeth wearing a white silk sundress. Beside the image was one of Percy's friends sitting around a campfire, laughing, eating s'mores and singing stupid songs. Finally, one final image displayed Percy with his mother on the beach at Montauk, what seemed like forever ago, eating blue candy and telling stories. "You could have them back Percy. _Just_ _work with me. Embrace the night and you'll see the ones you love again."_

Just as Percy was about to answer, the words already scrambling to escape his dry throat, a voice spoke from behind them and said calmly. "Or…" Percy turned around and saw the world as he wanted it. Maybe Annabeth was there, maybe she wasn't, but Percy was content. He felt fulfilled, he sat surrounded by new friends, new faces, some with names attached, and some without. He smiled and looked around, feeling a hand touch his own. "Maybe you could pull your head out of your ass and _Keep Moving Forward._ Sure, the past was great, but you have a future too, or at least you could have one, if you'd stop being so stuck in the past. Future friends, future family, maybe even a future love, so don't stop, don't quit, and don't let darkness win. It's just bad storytelling." The voice spoke with conviction and pride, but it also showed a twinge of sadness.

Percy looked back at the woman with the black dress and the soothing voice, and made up his mind. He reached out to her, his hand made to reach out for her face

…and grabbed her by the throat, throwing her to the ground. She hissed out a muted: "Damn." Before snapping her fingers and causing the dream to dissipate.

As Percy slowly began to awake, he noticed Yang sitting next to him, looking conflicted as she slowly patted his temple with a wet cloth. He smiled up at her, his best winning smile, causing her to sigh contentedly and flick him on the forehead. Looking up at Yang in shock, Percy lifted his arm for revenge, but stopped when he realized that he had casts on both hands. "You guys were fantastic."

Percy's eyes drifted to the rest of team RWBY and JNPR and he smiled, expecting to be harassed for his comments to Yang. Ruby piped up and smiled. "We are completely behind you and Yang's decisions, and you have my blessing to marry my sister, and Blake if you really want that."

"I have a concussion don't I?"

"...-ercy, Percy, can you hear me?" A voice asked through a haze as he groaned and opened his eyes slowly, the light blaring through his thick eyelashes between his eyelids. He stuck out his hands and realized with delight that his arms were not, in fact broken. "He's awake."

"Tell me straight Doc…" He trailed off dramatically. "Did I lose any teeth?" The doctor sighed but smiled, covering his face with a damp cloth. Percy immediately sighed as the water seeped out of the rag and seeped into his wounds, knitting together torn blood vessels and molding skin over his head. As he pulled away the rag, already his headache was dulling into a simple thud occasionally. The doctor gasped at his almost miraculous healing feat. "Act of god, right?"

"How did you do that? From the feed on the scroll that we have of you, you haven't got an ounce of aura. Is that some kind of hidden semblance?" The doctor asked, sliding the glasses on their nose up. "Can I take a blood sample?"

"You like that? You should see what I can do in a bathtub." Percy smiled weakly. He was obviously still in copious amounts of pain, but he was soldiering through it without so much as a groan. The doctor still looked like he wanted nothing but to poke Percy full of holes. "No, seriously. Can you move me to some tank of water. Anything would do, really."

"I might have something. Let me go check my supply closet." The doctor said, gesturing towards a strange blue door embedded in an otherwise completely stark white room with a strange label on it. _Police Box...huh?_ "In the meantime, your friends are here." Percy's thoughts immediately drifted to his old friends, Jason, Grover, Leo, Frank, Hazel, Piper, Thalia, Nico...Annabeth. But they were gone. Team RWBY Team JNPR, and maybe Ozpin and Roman...but Roman was shady and Ozpin was even more mysterious. "Come on in!"

Ruby was the first one in the room, leaning over the bed, scanning Percy's body for obvious injuries, but she didn't even get to see the bruise on Percy's face up close, instead, she only spotted the huge bruise and indent in his chest. "Oh my goodness! You were awesome! How did you pull out such big weapons from that small bag? Is it like, magic? Is it dust infused? Is it your semblance?"

"You should probably slow down Ruby. I'm sure Percy is still tired from his fight." Pyrrha said kindly, smiling down at the injured man with respect. "I enjoyed watching you do battle Percy, and I hope that someday I may fight you as well."

"I'm hoping that that doesn't happen for a long time." Percy said smiling. He wrapped his arm around Ruby and pulled her in for nuggy. Ruby whined for a moment before Percy pulled her closer to him and hid behind her. "Where's Yang?"

"I'm coming, don't worry lover-boy, I'll be there in a second." Yang called in, limping slightly as she entered, sitting in the rolly chair by the door and sliding across the floor to Percy's side. Percy held Ruby up between the two of them, much to her behest. "I'm not gonna hit you Rocky, I think you got your butt kicked enough today."

"So, can you put me down?" Ruby demanded, feeling extremely small compared to Percy's huge hands and the fact that she was being held a foot above the floor, with ease. She frowned as maturely as she could manage before her frown deepened and she stared down at Percy disapprovingly. "Why didn't your aura take the damage from the hits you took?"

"I'm still not great with controlling that whole thing. See, I'm more of a-"

"You have no clue what that is, do you?"

"Nope." Percy said happily, grinning sheepishly. Weiss nearly slapped herself on the forehead, only to stop when Ruby and Jaune laughed good-naturedly. "Though, I do admit that I'm curious of anything that can keep Goldilocks here from beating the crap out of me like that again."

"If I knew you couldn't take it, I wouldn't have dished it out so bad." Yang smiled coyly, but caring Yang yelled out _I'm so sorry! I didn't know that I'd hurt you._ Real Yang laughed again, by now, she was an expert at not showing how much she was worried, dealing with Ruby for fifteen- almost sixteen years. Her birthday was coming up, had to do something about that. "Anyway, it's good that you're not dead kid."

"Kid?" Percy asked, smiling wryly, he groaned for a moment before standing hesitantly. As his feet touched the ground, he winced at the pain in his knees before he caught sight of the bespectacled Doctor wheeling a strange tub into the room. "I'm seventeen years old and I've survived two wars. I stopped being a kid when I was twelve."

As The Doctor pulled up beside Percy, the son of the sea quickly plopped himself into the tub and sank into it's depths, smiling warmly as the cool liquid calmed his frayed nerves and enveloped the pain, shooing it into the calm sea breeze far from it's source and it's victim. Finally, after a speedy and full recovery, Percy stood up in the tub, hopped out and frowned, saddened by the sudden decrease in energy after leaving the life-giving pool. Ren stared silently for a moment before humming in thought. The repercussions of this talent would be monumental in the battlefield. "Interesting."

Without skipping a beat, Percy picked up his bag, put it across his shoulder and stepped up to the group, gesturing at himself to show that he was fine. Team JNPR nodded and began the trek to Oobleck's lesson. Team RWBY, however, had to wait for Yang to slowly stand up, her legs still wobbly from the hit she took to the knee. Percy quickly slid Yang's arm around his shoulder and helped her to meander to her next class; History...yay. The dread was palpable. How would Percy react to Oobleck's demeanor, for that matter, how would Oobleck react to Percy? Only time would tell.

Somewhere across the Akashic Plane, Richard and Chaos continued to do battle, their wills clashing as Percy continued his path to return peace, ensure good, and continue the American way, and all that crap. However, another mind entered into the fray as Richard thought that his battle was nearly lost. _"What's up, yo?"_

" _Ah, hello Monty, how're you?"_ Richard asked, smiling as he was joined in his battle against the Plot Twisted One. _"I thought Percy would never make friends."_

" _You got a good kid there, Rick, definitely a stand-up guy."_ Monty smirked. His eyes narrowed at the androgynous entity pitted against them. _"Now, time to deal with this...Fraud."_


	4. Betcha Didn't See That Coming!

_Μελάνι είναι το αίμα των αναμνήσεων_

Ink is the blood of memories.

* * *

-The Author

An idea is an impossible thing to describe. In science, it could be considered a sequence of neuron firings that coincide with a preassigned thought. However, since all of these neurons exist in different brains, and store different memories, an idea is extremely difficult to pass on. But that...that rare control over dreams, that was what made Perseus Jackson, or Nightshade, special.

Percy had a problem, not that he knew it, but his problem was huge, like staring at an A-bomb that just dropped on your house and wondering how you'll pay for the damage to your roof.

The blast was still to come.

If there was ever a time that Percy Nightshade wasn't oblivious, it was when he was sleep deprived, starving, and simmering with an insatiable fury. As fights played out in front of him, each of them ending with Glynda Goodwitch stepping in between the pair and analyzing every aspect of the student.

"You've progressed remarkably well, Mr. Brunswick, perhaps next time, you should consider using less pizzaz, and focus instead on the power of your attacks. Your use of sleight of hand would have come in handy in order to capitalize on any openings, and you should also wear less restrictive clothing." Glynda listed off, pointing out the problems that everyone had. "Mr. Nightshade, if you would come to the stage please?"

"Why do you keep picking on me?!" Percy asked, his top finally blowing. "I've done nothing to you!"

"I'm not going to harm you, Mr. Nightshade, quite the opposite, I plan on activating your aura. However, if you'd like, I'm sure I could find quite a few volunteers here to do battle with you."

"I like that first option. Let's go with that first option." Percy responded quickly, his voice raised half an octave. After another feat of great idiocy, or fearlessness, whichever you deem fit, Percy landed gently on the arena floor, looking rather impressive, standing almost half a foot taller than Glynda. As the intimidating, though alluring, blonde stared up at him, Percy smiled shyly and whispered to himself. "Why are there so many hot blondes around here?"

Glynda acted like she hadn't heard what Percy said, but she barely kept up the facade that prevented her from strangling him for his distraction and his inappropriate comment. Ozpin didn't share her control, though, and instead hummed with silent amusement from his platform, hidden in the shadows of the rafters. Glynda placed her hand on Percy's shoulder and closed her eyes, reaching out into Percy's being, trying to find the key to his soul, only to be stopped…

* * *

 _"You shouldn't be here." A voice of immeasurable power growled. "This child is mine to protect, therefore, to ensure no ill will, you shall be tested and tried, and if you are found wanting, your soul shall suffer the eternal torments of the sea's unending wrath."_

 _"I'm not here to harm Percy, I'm here to help him, I only want to allow his soul to break free of its bonds. There is no ill intent behind my words."_

 _The voice remained silent before, with an invisible nod, she was beckoned forward. "Speak friend, and enter."_

* * *

Glynda's eyes opened and she scanned Percy's face before muttering words that Percy had not heard for a long time. "All hail Perseus Jackson, son of the sea god." As the last word left her mouth, Percy's eyes widened, and he felt a very different voice mutter something incomprehensible before dragging Percy into a fugue state…

* * *

 _"Percy, Percy, Percy!" Richard admonished from beside a young Asian man that Percy couldn't identify. Percy looked between the two with a growing curiosity. The Asian man smiled at Percy, waving at him coolly. "You just had to go and do that, didn't you?"_

 _"I told you he'd go for it." The younger apparition smirked. "It's literally a part of him. He can hardly resist his soul, now can he?" Both ghosts sighed, one in exasperation, the other in humor. "However, there are rules."_

 _Richard sighed and rubbed his temples. "Monty, let me tell him." Monty frowned and shrugged, taking a step back. "When your aura is active, you have extremely limited access to your powers. You can't really use much of your power at all, however, your aura will add to your already considerable endurance and reflexes. It'll feel like you're stronger and faster, but unfortunately, you're not. You've been...in a word: Nerfed. You're stronger than you were, but you can't get to that strength in normal circumstances. Your aura doesn't acknowledge your power as a non-threat. So, it's sorta like a last resort, your aura is protecting you from your power, so only when you're halfway dead does your power come back. I'm sorry, but you need this training. You need to become better without your demigod capabilities. Good luck."_

" _Wait." Percy spoke up, looking between the two with an almost sickening smile on his face. He stuck his hand out and both respectively shook it before he frowned and bluntly stated. "You both suck." Causing both men to smile lightly._

* * *

As Percy returned from his fugue state, he growled before realizing that he had turned an even more vibrant shade of green, and his skin gained an even deeper bronze tan before his aura even began to reach past his skin, but as it did, it enveloped not only himself, but also Glynda, absorbing her into a small island peace and serenity for a moment, a warm summer breeze blowing through her, carrying along with it the scent of saltwater and wood smoke, causing her to smile in bliss to the sound of distant Calypso music. She opened her eyes and Percy was looking down at her with a knowing smile.

"I think I'll take option two now." Without missing a beat, Glynda snapped herself out of her thoughts and nodded, looking up into the stands, trying to find people who hadn't fought during the period yet. "Alright ladies, it's time to hop aboard the as- err, butt-kicking express. Population? Whoever's got the cajones to go toe to toe with me!"

This earned a few mutterings around the room about how he battled it out with Yang Xiao Long, or as she was better known as 'busty brawler'. That didn't stop a couple of people from stepping forward, including Nora, who in turn dragged Ren along, and a green-haired girl with a dark complexion and red eyes.

And Blake.

"Ms. Valkyrie, Mr. Lie Ren, Ms. Sustrai, and Ms. Belladonna, I'm afraid that this seems a tad excessive against a single man, even with his record. Perhaps we should take this a little mo-" Glynda was interrupted mid-thought when Percy calmly stepped up beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder, showing more courage than anyone south of Ozpin.

"This is everyone who wants to fight?" Percy asked, making sure that they were all certain of their stances in the arena. He received an almost imperceptible nod from Ren, a calm acknowledgment from Blake and a hyper bobbing of Nora's head, while the mysterious girl simply smiled. "I'm willing if they are."

Glynda sighed. "Children…"

As the combatants arrayed themselves, performing their own pre-battle rituals, Percy was rummaging through his bag, scouring it repeatedly, almost as if it was constantly changing contents. "Where are you? Ooh! You'll be intriguing."

"Combatants ready?" Glynda asked seriously. Without waiting for a response, she continued instantly. "Fight."

Before Percy was even standing, Nora was upon him, a huge overhead swing from Magnhild caused Percy to roll to the side, dragging with him a three and a half foot gladius, swinging it up as he barrel rolled in midair, knocking aside Gambol Shroud as Blake leapt back, allowing Ren a moment to launch a flurry of kicks at Percy, each one connecting with Percy's stomach. Percy rolled to his feet, feeling at his ribs, expecting at least a bit of pain before he was forced back by a spray of bullets that he deflected with the edge of his blade, he then charged forward, swinging his sword with accurate slashes and strength that knocked everyone but Nora back to give himself space. He took a single breath and decided to go with a different approach. He took a neutral combat stance and allowed himself a heartbeat to relax completely before he took a glance around the room. His opponents were hesitant to approach for some reason. "Okay, I think I'm getting used to this aura thing."

A sudden blow to his spine threw Percy across the floor of the arena, skidding to the edge of the arena, only staying on by sheer tenacity and a three foot sword imbedded in the floor. Ren was quickly closing on Perseus as he pulled himself to his feet, his head down. Ren threw a few quick slashes at Percy's chest but his sword had already been dislodged and with a few quick parries, the green-eyed swordsman had already knocked Ren's Stormflower out to his side and he planted a firm Spartan kick straight into the green clad boy's chest, launching him into the oncoming Nora. She quickly caught Ren, which threw her off balance, allowing Percy to pull a home plate slide, knocking the Valkyrie's legs out from underneath her. Without missing a beat, Percy quickly raised his blade out of pure instinct, blocking an overhead cleaving strike from Blake's sheath. A blink later and Percy found himself sprawled along the floor, an imprint of a size seven heel across his back.

He turned to meet Blake's gaze. Nora and Ren were slowly recovering from their dazes, and they were the first target. Another blink and Percy jabbed his blade into the space between Ren and Nora's heads, growling at the pair. "Surrender." The single word, imbued with the aura which originally was calm and serene, but now reminded Ren of a squall that could destroy small islands. Ren raised his hands in defeat and dragged Nora behind him.

"Ren, I can still fight." Nora murmured, shaking off her dazed state.

"I refuse to allow that." Ren stated, his usual stoic and calm state shattered, leaving Ren a shuddering, frightened wreck. "I'm afraid, Nora. That is not a man, that is a force of nature. I hope to never face him again in combat."

"Ren, what's wrong?" Nora implored, her voice surprisingly somber as the two placed their weapons into their lockers.

"His aura was not human. It looked-...it didn't end." Ren hesitated, trying to find a way to simplify it for Nora. "It was like staring out at the ocean, an ocean of power, and of hatred, and of-...sadness."

Emerald and Blake watched as Ren and Nora left with trepidation. Both of the fighters were still in relatively good shape, but for some reason, both of them decided to surrender without giving any sort of fight. Percy twirled his sword a few times before he finally grasped it in a stance similar to Weiss'. Blake lowered her stance, thinking that she knew what Percy was going to do. She had seen Weiss in combat, and had made herself familiar with her style of swordplay. Emerald charged, confident in her abilities to surprise the opponent. Percy, meanwhile, was trying to get used to his new abilities with aura. _Ooh! What does this button do?!_ Percy thought to himself, focusing all of his aura in a single point, not on the entire bottom of his foot, only underneath the ball of his left foot, which he promptly planted, causing a small tremor to rock the arena.

Emerald was soon upon Percy, however, Percy didn't see her, he saw a young woman with wavy, honey blonde hair, the most intense eyes that he had ever seen and an extremely muscular, while still effeminate figure. He would know her anywhere.

Annabeth.

 _No no no no no no no no!_ Percy's mind muttered to itself, recalling red-stained images, flitting across the silver screen of his worst nightmares. _I watched you die. You died at the other end of my blade, cursing my name for ever having met you. You tried to gut me, and thanks to you, I realized that love is for children._ The deadly swipe of his sword tore Emerald's aura based illusion apart, chipping into her overall aura reserves as well. Emerald was already upon him though, slicing her dual sickles through the air, the force sending Percy reeling across the arena, pushing himself off the ground at the last second, landing on his feet, using his momentum to spin himself into another neutral stance. _It's time to end this battle Percy, time to pull out the stops._

Blake and Emerald charged together, expecting their combined effort to force Percy back to the edge, or at least destroy his aura, but he was suddenly faster and stronger than before, dodging, parrying, deflecting and reversing attacks from both of them. With tiny adjustments from his blade, Percy was able to fend off two of the more skilled acrobatic fighters. Then he went on the offensive. A wide swipe pushed the two into the perfect distance for his next attack. Using his momentum from his previous slash, Percy planted his right foot and used the twist of his torso like a spring, bringing all of the saved up power he had to counter swing, making a complete circle around his body as he jumped up and came to slam his sword at their heads, continuing in a flip and landing behind them.. _Spin attack and Helm Splitter, where did that come from?_ Both barely had time to even flinch as they were forced to block the horizontal slash, only to see the blade ready to cleave them in two. Both combatants skidded across the floor, Soon, both of them were panting, and Blake recalled something that had previously seemed unimportant, but was currently leaving her in serious distress. Percy stood across from the panting duo with barely a glisten of sweat across his brow, he was composed and calm, and both of them were currently suffering from severe exhaustion, but no pain whatsoever. "What's- huh huff- going-...on?"

 _Come on! Don't tell me that this guy isn't even going all out!_ Emerald implored, growling to herself under her breath. Blake was having very different thoughts, however.

 _God, yes! If he's got this much stamina, imagine how great he'd be in bed!_ Slutty Blake was beaten down by logical Blake, who glanced at her aura levels and realized that she was hovering at about twenty percent, and it seemed that Emerald wasn't doing much better. "This is our- huff huh- last shot. We'll attack together."

Too late, both of them realized that they had taken their eyes off of the enemy at the same time, and as they turned back to where Percy was, it was too late, he was upon them, swiping the flat of his blade across Emerald's ribcage. Blake brought up Gambol Shroud, firing at him as he swiped at one of her shadow clones, but as she landed, she heard the buzzer ring.

"This match is over!" Glynda Goodwitch announced calmly, hiding her mild awe. Percy Nightshade had just defeated three of the four students that he was to fight, and his final opponent was only a single percentage point above fifteen, while he had just reached fifteen himself. "Mr. Nightshade, perhaps you shouldn't underestimate your opponent next time, or at least use some sense of reason while fighting. Your instincts are excellent and your speed is good, however, you often turned away from your opponent, leaving them with openings."

"Yes professor." Percy said calmly, rolling his shoulders and hopping to his feet, his aura was beyond depleted. Even now, as he calmed down, his aura was still dropping, soon it fell into the red, stopping at five percent. "Ugh, I'm parched!"

Percy walked over to the last two opponents, noticing that both were panting hard, but didn't seem to be in pain in the least bit. He reached his hands out to both of them, helping them to their feet. Emerald smiled at him and thanked him before walking over to her teammate. Meanwhile, Blake was staring up at Percy with a conflicted look in her eye. She remembered what had happened when Percy had stepped into the water, and she wanted to test this power out, and as such, she had planned ahead. "Here."

Percy smiled in thanks at Blake, taking the water bottle and downing half of it before sighing loudly. He then proceeded to dump the rest of it onto his head and close his eyes in bliss, not noticing, or not caring, that his aura was still being displayed on the screen. He was too focused on the fact that he was suddenly reenergized, like he could go toe to toe with Ares himself right now. "Percy." Blake whispered, her voice quivering in suppressed awe. "Your aura's full again-"

" _No, No, No! Cut, Cut!"_ A voice rang through the room, sending a piercing headache spiking through everyone in the room. " _Percy! P-money! PJ's! This just isn't cool! You're getting pretty OP man! You need to chill! How about this, you can keep Monty's little booster shot, and Richy's good old fashioned demigodliness, but you better be ready for some godly-and monsterly-retribution! You're seriously, just- too strong, man! You need to realize something! I'm in control here! And while I'm on a seriously short leash when it comes to putting the screws on you, that doesn't mean that I_ can't _put the screws on you."_ Suddenly the voice gained a body, an amorphous body, but a body nonetheless. Striding across the stage, not a care in the world, the body approached Percy, stopping only for a moment when Glynda stepped in his way.

"I'm not entirely sure who you are, or even what you are, but these are my students, so I would suggest you consider your next action carefully." She raised her riding crop, and with a flick of the wrist, she sent herself flying into the stands as her power was reflected back at her. The flickering body in the center of the arena smirked as well as it could without a face and pointed a finger-gun at Blake, his entire body tensing up.

" _Bang."_ Blake was sent flailing across the arena, her chest suddenly compressed as if she had been smacked in the sternum by Magnhild. Percy strode up to the nondescript body and struck out with his sword, swinging completely through the nonexistent body with a nice little _swoosh. "C'mon Percy! You really thought that you could beat me with a sword that_ I _allowed you to have! You think you managed to bring your junk through that portal through wit, luck and your winning personality? I let you keep it!"_

Percy suddenly felt his throat constrict as the world around him dissolved, turning into a strange line of words that seemed to form into shapes, like Blake's prone form, splayed across the floor, a crater with smoke still rising from it, everything Percy could see was comprised entirely of different colored words.

 _Smoke._

 _Blake._

 _Wall._

 _Door._

 _Floor._

As Percy turned to face the faceless fellow, the words became a single resounding expression.

 _ENEMY_

 _FOE_

 _KILL_

 _DESTROY_

 _RAZE_

 _OBLITERATE_

"What did you do to me?!" Percy screamed, clutching his eyes, trying to make the words go away. The ambiguous entity snickered and placed his hand on the top of Percy's head, ruffling his hair before gripping it tightly and slamming Percy into the floor. "What'd you do to me?!"

 _"I just gave you a glance of what it is that truly makes up your world!"_ He/it muttered, kneeling over Percy's undefended body, pushing him back onto his stomach every time he tried to get up. _"Maybe now you'll realize how little hope you can actually cling to."_

"There's always hope, Chaos." An enigmatic voice stated simply from behind Percy. Standing next to Glynda's slowly rising form, cane and mug in hand, Headmaster Ozpin stared calmly at the now shimmering form that loomed over Percy. "Hope lies in more than power, it can also lie in...smaller, more innocent concepts."

 _"Even after your massacre, you speak of ideals and hope."_ The voice was no longer haughty and sarcastic, now it sounded almost...scared. _"You can prepare your armies Ozpin, you're going to need them, there's a new threat about, and you'll need some meat shields if you have any plans of surviving to face Nyx. Especially with your only hope being an amnesiac."_

 _"Bye bye, now!"_ As Chaos disappeared, Team RWBY's remaining members rushed to the arena floor to check on Blake, meanwhile Glynda strode forward and knelt beside Percy, examining him for obvious wounds. Though outwardly, Percy seemed fine, everyone in the room could tell there was a change in his aura. Before Chaos had arrived, Percy's entire soul was like an endless squall, seeping into everything, but it was also sharp and refined, agile and swift, now, it was gone.

"Mr. Nightshade, are you alright?" Glynda asked, kneeling down. She rested her hand on Percy's head, detecting the changes to his aura. It wasn't gone, it was just infinitesimally small. Percy's eyes opened and his face seemed to explode with youth, the bags around his eyes diminished, the lines across his brow vanished, and his eyes seemed to finally display the smile that previously only his mouth had born. Percy tilted his head to the side and queried innocently.

"Nightshade? My name's Percy. Percy Jackson." Ozpin stared down at him with a curious glint in his eye and frowned. "Where am I?"

"You're at Beacon Academy in Vale." Glynda said calmly, her voice wavering as she looked at the boy who had at one point scared her beyond measure. He looked like he could be fourteen. "Do you know my name?"

"Should I?" The green eyed amnesiac asked. "I'm sorry if I don't remember you. I'm kinda fuzzy right now, sorry."

"Mr. Jackson, my name is Headmaster Ozpin, and I'd like to speak to you in my office." Without a question, the raven stood up and smiled at the headmaster, following the dapper huntsman whimsically. "Meanwhile, perhaps Professor Goodwitch could have a conversation with team RWBY. The rest of the class is dismissed."

"Percy has developed a type of, hopefully temporary, retrograde amnesia. His memories are muddled at best and at worst-..."

"Gone" Blake finished for Glynda. She looked down, her own mind muddled as well after the confrontation, that amorphous bastard hit like a freight train. "So, what now? He seems to remember most of his life, he just can't remember his recent past. So, he could very well have forgotten everything he had known about combat."

"That's one of the possibilities that I have considered, and that's one of the reasons that I wanted to speak with you. I was hoping that you might help him to regain some semblance of his previous skill."

"So, you want us to train him?" Weiss asked bluntly, looking almost bored at the proposition. _I shall mold him to be the perfect apprentice! He shall be refined! He shall be swift! He shall be elegant! He shall be perfect!_ Weiss laughed maniacally in her mind, silently plotting her uprising. "That seems to be quite a sizable task, perha-"

"Sounds like fun!" Yang interrupted, leaning forward, smiling at Glynda. Professor Goodwitch gave a sigh and a relieved smile. "But what exactly are we supposed to be teaching him? We hardly know his style of fighting, only Jaune and Pyrrha could teach him, and Pyrrha already has a trainee and Jaune's not exactly the best teacher."

"Teach him whatever you can. Teach him your styles, teach him whatever he can learn." Ozpin walked up behind Glynda and placed a hand on her shoulder. Glynda sighed but nodded. "Think of everything that you wish someone would have told you when you decided that you wanted to be a huntress, and teach him these things."

* * *

As team RWBY approached Percy, sitting lightly on a bench, munching on an apple, they each adopted places beside him, getting as comfortable as they could beside someone they hardly knew.

"So...I'm sorry about your amnesia." Ruby tried hesitantly.

Weiss elbowed her in the gut and she grunted in annoyance. "You imbecile."

"When we fought...you were- you were a force of nature. If you were to use your power to fight the Grimm, you would be unstoppable. You could contend with the best of huntsman with the training that you could receive here." Blake spoke quietly, but because of the silence of the other four, her statement rang through the air.

"Why would I want to do that?" Percy asked innocently. "Why would I want to be a hero?"


	5. Not Just Another Training Montage

"I'm sorry, could you run that by me again?" Yang asked, leaning forward threateningly. Percy gave her a sideways glance and frowned.

"I don't want to be a hero." Percy enunciated slowly, almost tasting every word.

"One more time…" She tilted her head and patted her ear, pretending to clear water out of her ears.

"I- meaning me, meaning Percy Jackson- do not- Do. Not.- Got this so far?" He paused as Yang's hair began to sizzle, embers already rising. "Want/desire/feel inclined to/have any intention of becoming a hero!"

"You're being an ass." Blake growled.

"Oh, am I? Maybe it's just the fact that out of the nine people I've asked here so far, none of them had heard of New York, or America, or fricking Dunkin Donuts!" Percy stood up and gestured wildly. "So yeah, I'm an ass! Let it go on record that _I am an ass!_ Did you get that? Write that down. I. Am. An. Ass."

"Listen up you-"

"Miss Xiao Long, perhaps you and your team should go get some lunch." Ozpin interjected calmly, his cane tapping along the paving stones.

As team RWBY wandered off toward the cafeteria, Ozpin took a seat beside Percy and pulled out his scroll serenely. "Are you here to convince me to be a hero too?"

"No, I'm here to read you some stories." He then proceeded to read to Perseus tales of Heracles, Perseus, Theseus, Orion, Jason, Bellerophon, Atalanta, and one very special story.

"Her name was Zoë Nightshade," Ozpin began, sighing as he shifted his cane. "and she is a tale demonstrating the darkest side of heroes, and also their greatest points."

"Heracles was not always a paragon of strength…" Percy sat quietly as Ozpin began to explain the gritty underbelly of the hero image. "But then she met a new hero, impetuous and brash, he nearly leapt off a cliff to save the woman he loved-"

"Almost jumped off a cliff? Is that like almost tackling a hand grenade? Or is this more _almost_ donated his kidney?-"

"He was stopped." Ozpin said bluntly, giving Percy a withering stare. "His love was no longer there, she had been kidnapped, and a quest was issued."

"A quest because this guy's girlfriend got kidnapped? That seems like a breach of the whole: _greater good_ thing that heroes are supposed to have."

"The quest was not issued to save the woman."

"Ooh, bummer. Too bad. What does this have to do with Zoë?"

"Zoe's captain, an important general, had also been kidnapped, and was being held near where the girl was." Ozpin cleared his throat and continued slightly louder. "The boy was excluded from the quest, however, being impetuous as he was, he snuck off anyway. He followed the quest and saved them, many times, and as they reached the conclusion of their journey, he displayed something to Zoë something that she had never seen so prevalent in her whole life: Loyalty."

"Yay? I'm not getting the point yet, try small words."

"The boy was the only truly good hero she had ever encountered, and that, Mr. Jackson, is a travesty. Heroes are human, but to fight monsters, one must be sure to never become one, heroes should hold themselves to a higher standard, and in all her life, she hadn't met anyone who fit those criteria."

"Except you." Ozpin concluded.

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Jackson, you were the only hero that Ms. Nightshade had ever seen as anything more than a hollow echo of an imperfect mold." Ozpin adjusted his glasses and shot Percy a sidelong glance. "I hope that one day you may be that same person again."

"It's not that I don't want to be a great hero, but every great hero ends the same way. They die horribly. Heracles was drenched in poison, Theseus went nutty and Perseus ended up hitched, Bellerophon was shot out of the sky, and Atalanta ended up nameless, following a cult of maidens for the rest of her life." Perseus stood up and throttled an invisible enemy. "I just want to be normal."

He looked to Ozpin and two indomitable wills met fearlessly. "Mr. Jackson, you will never be normal, no matter how hard you try, you will always be exceptional, and with enemies surrounding you, the only place you could ever hope for normalcy is at my academy."

"I won't be a hero."

"You don't need to be." Ozpin stood and stuck his hand out. "You only need to be a student."

* * *

"I'm sorry, could you run that by me again." Roman held his hand to his ear and smiled threateningly. "I almost could have sworn that you said that I'm going to be moving this- admittedly massive- stockpile of dust to Mountain Glenn, but that can't be right!"

His eyes darkened and his cane found it's way onto the poor mook's sternum. " _ **Right?!"**_

"You must be Torchwood!" A melodic voice called from the darkened doorway. "It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am."

"It's _**Torchwick!**_ And it's _**Sir!**_ "

"Yeah, sure, whatever." A young girl carrying a wrapped package skipped up toward Roman and tossed him the box. "It's a gift from Cinder's new boss."

Roman opened the lid to the box for a moment and his eyes widened, his cane flipped toward the girl and slammed into her shoulder. He opened the box a little more and showed her the contents: Neo's head, face contorted in a silent scream of panic. _**"Explain."**_

"Aww, is someone getting emotional?" The girl asked mockingly. She snickered and took the box, reaching in and pulling out the contents with a sinful innocence. "What's wrong? It's only an apple."

* * *

"Wow..." Percy remarked sardonically. "A library, how exciting."

Blake frowned disapprovingly but Pyrrha just soldiered on. Weaving through the towering shelves of Beacon's library, the champion and her raven companions found a quiet desk to sit at and forced Perseus into a chair. "Pyrrha and I will be tutoring you to catch you up on academics, because even if you're not going to become a huntsman, you're still a student, and this is the safest place for you."

"You have three main classes that you'll have to worry about; Dust and Alchemy 101, Grimm Studies and Strategy and Tactics." Pyrrha continued, her voice calm and measured, but her she was obviously on edge. She pulled three books out of her bag and placed them on the table quietly. "For Dust and Alchemy 101 you'll need to read up on the basic types of dust and understand their properties and how they react to each other. Read through the first three chapters of this and you'll have a good basic grasp, we'll work from there."

"In Grimm Studies, we're learning about Grimm habitats, hunting patterns and tracking, but you'll also need a grasp of the Bestiary and general anatomy, so you should read chapters one, five and nine, and make sure to memorize the table on page seventy-five." Blake began, she opened the book up and flipped a few pages, finally pointing to a list of names and facts that seemed rather vague.

"There's not a lot of information here. Are you telling me that this is all you're learning about these Grimm? Shouldn't they teach you more? It seems like this is a pretty big deal to you guys." Pyrrha and Blake flinched for a moment before continuing like Percy hadn't said anything.

"Tactics and Strategy is relatively straightforward, we look at historically relevant battle plans and focus on the tactics they employed, then we create and implement our own tactics." Pyrrha paused and scrounged in her backpack for a few seconds before withdrawing a larger book, already marked up and brimming with random papers. "This class does have a lot of general history involved in it, but that's something else entirely."

"So, you're telling me that there's no math or science?" Percy asked hopefully, a grin spreading across his face. Blake tilted her head side to side. "Sorta...?"

"Dust and Alchemy 101 is huntsman equivalent of chemistry, meanwhile, Grimm Studies contains everything we need to know about biology and physics is an optional course; weapon and ordinance mechanics." Pyrrha said, her mood beginning to waver. "As for math..."

Blake picked up where Pyrrha trailed off with a caustic: "What's four times four?"

After a second of surprised silence, Percy replied with a hesitant: "Sixteen...?"

"Congratulations, you passed math." She grunted bleakly.

* * *

Combat training was a bit more bearable for Percy, he got to take off the frankly suffocating suit and tie that students had to wear for a uniform, and he wore a pair of beat up running shorts and a t-shirt.

"Okay, so here's the deal." Yang began as Percy adjusted his sword in his hand, looking at the wooden blade hesitantly. "You need to learn how to fight. Period."

After half an hour of hands on combat training, wherein Yang slammed him across the floor four times, uppercutted him into unconsciousness twice, and kicked him so hard that his head bounced off the floor like a basketball. Percy thought that maybe he'd like to go back to the books for a little while.

"Oh God Yang! You killed him!" Ruby cried out, rushing to his side. She looked down at his bruised and broken body, his eyelids fluttering ever-so-slightly. "Oh, wait, nope, he's fine."

"Your concern is touching." Percy said blandly, his eyes still closed and bruises beginning to form on his arms and legs.

"What happened to you?" Weiss asked, looking down at Perseus with a detached curiosity. "Shouldn't your aura be healing you? You look like crap."

"Yeah, she's not wrong." Blake said bluntly, her eyes flitting along his body aimlessly. Finally, almost imperceptibly, her eyes widened in realization. "You should probably take a shower, I know it helps me."

Percy looked at her suspiciously but finally rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, rolling his shoulders and picking up the wooden sword. "One more match and I'll go."

Yang's fist slammed into the flat of the blade before the word 'go' was finished. The swordsman wasn't used to fighting with a wooden sword, but his muscle memory took hold and he deflected her fist harmlessly over his shoulder. Yang's leg came around as she pulled her arm back and Percy blocked again, his sword was held in his left hand and was supported by his right leg as he stepped into the blow and leaned the wooden blade against his knee, catching her foot and stopping it in its tracks.

To the audience, the battle seemed to be progressing well, but Yang knew that soon Percy's buzz would wear off and he would lose all his momentum. It had already started. His muscle memory and reflexes were tapering off; soon, he was focusing on dodging Yang's fury and occasionally using his sword to block a kick or a haymaker. The fight was over within two minutes, but it was an improvement.

"So...shower?" Percy asked from his place on the floor. The group looked at him almost piteously. He began to pry himself off the floor. "Yeah-" There was a loud pop and he moaned in pain, falling back to the floor. "Shower it is."

As he prepared for his shower in the co-ed locker rooms (Who thought that was a good idea?! They're teenagers hopped up on dopamine and adrenaline!) Percy was being watched by a sassy badass...err, a non-amnesiac one.

Coco Adel was doing routine maintenance on her weapon and would soon be glad for it. "Hey, Vel, check out eight and a half over there, ten o'clock."

Velvet cocked her head to the side and pursed her lips in confusion. "I'd give him a nine, why only eight and a half?"

"No sense of style." Velvet nodded knowingly, pulling out her camera to take a picture of Percy. Personally, she liked it, but in all honesty, it was a bit blurry. "But I could change that."

Soon, they heard the shower running and a sudden blissful moan, then, out of nowhere; "holy fucking hell!"

The boy ran back across the locker room, completely uncaring that his junk was waving in the wind. He had to show Team RWBY his discovery.

Coco and Velvet just stared.

"Nine and three-quarters."

Which coincidentally enough, was also the same length as the weapon that Velvet wished she had just gotten a picture of.

Blake had expected a surprised reaction from Percy, she expected him to be ecstatic, perhaps confused and even the tiniest bit awestruck, but what she did not expect Percy to be was naked.

"You're not going to believe this!" He shouted, skidding to a stop in front of team RWBY without a care in the world. Yang covered Ruby's eyes while openly gaping at Percy's-...abs...

"Oh God, the books aren't exaggerating." Blake murmured, awestruck, her eyes glued to Percy's-...legs...

Percy looked down, noted that he was naked and shrugged, a blush burning across his face as he looked back up. "That doesn't matter. I was in the shower and all of a sudden- what's up with Weiss?"

Everyone looked down at her twitching body and then back up at Percy. "Don't worry, she's fine."

"Okay...anyway! I was in the shower, and I started to wash my hair and suddenly all of the pain just goes away!" He used exaggerated hand gestures, and hopped excitedly on the balls of his feet, causing other balls to bounce around freely. "And then, after a few seconds, the bruises all started going away and-"

"Okay, I can't take this anymore! Can you put some pants on or something?" Ruby asked, not much caring that Percy wasn't wearing any pants, more that Yang's hand was still in her face.

"But I still need to finish my shower." Percy said sadly, his eyes beginning to shimmer with faux tears.

"Yeah Ruby," Yang said distractedly, her eyes glued to Percy's-...abs..."He still needs to finish his shower."

"Yeah...shower." Blake voiced distractedly, she too was staring at Percy's-...abs...

Suddenly, Coco walked in. "Is no one going to mention that gargantuan package he's got between his legs?!"

* * *

"Well, I think we can all say that today was a very...informative day." Yang said brightly, the seven of them sitting at a table in the cafeteria, munching on a late dinner. Coco smirked and stuck her can of soda in the air in a silent 'cheers'. Percy simply snorted and looked down at his burger with a smile.

He ran his hand through his hair and shook his head, loosing a splash of water on his seat mates who happened to be Blake and Weiss, both seemed to be irked by this. "So, what exactly did we learn?"

"Percy sucks at studying." Blake suggested.

"Percy has zero skill, but he's got good reflexes, and he's pretty tough." Ruby piped up, smiling innocently.

"Percy has fantastic abs." Yang said predatorily.

"Percy has zero boundaries when it comes to modesty." Weiss growled.

"His co-" Coco was elbowed by Velvet. "-Umm, package is humongous."

"Yang leads with her right foot when her combo is going to rely entirely on punches, but when she's planning on throwing kicks into the works, she keeps her legs closer together, giving her more range of motion." Percy began, surprising everyone. "Yang has potential for some serious acrobatic stuff, considering the strength in her legs, her coordination and her balance, but she doesn't use that skill, meaning she's holding back on me."

Percy paused and as an aside, turned to Yang and nodded thankfully. "Much appreciated, by the way."

"We learned that Yang's straight kicks aren't as strong as rotation kicks and that she uses the muscles along her shoulder blades to control the force of her blows because of how far back her fist comes. She's versatile and light on her feet, but as soon as her heels touch the ground, you can expect a heavy blow."

The whole time, Percy was gesturing with a French fry and frowning thoughtfully. He finally tossed the French fry into his mouth and chewed, beginning to smile. "Also, Blake reads books that depict men's genitals, and apparently at my size."

Blake's face flushed as she glowered at Percy, her fists clenched. "It's art."

"I learned that the only thing between Percy and the mythical ten status is a good wardrobe." Velvet teased, causing everyone to reexamine him critically. "A quarter of a point."

Yang tilted her head to the side and nodded slowly, while Blake just pursed her lips and shrugged affirmatively. Weiss rolled her eyes while Ruby blinked a couple times but shrugged apathetically, returning to her dessert. Coco turned to Percy, smirking.

"Hey, Artois Winter Collection." Coco hailed, drawing Weiss' confused glance. _That's what I'm wearing!_ "Mind if I take that seat?"

Weiss shrugged, picking up her tray and switching seats with Coco, who poked Percy with a well manicured nail. "Tomorrow. Nine. Bullhead docks."

"Your mission, if you choose to accept it-" Percy teased, lowering his voice conspiratorially. Coco stomped one of her heels into Percy's sandal clad foot, causing him to grit his teeth. "Gotcha. Nine o'clock, come prepared for anything."

"I think this would be a fun group outing!" Ruby said happily, nudging Coco. _Yang wants to come but is too proud to admit it._ "Can we come along?"

"Yeah, that'd be fine, but if you find something for Percy that I don't approve of, you're paying for it." Coco shrugged impassively and leaned back, bumping into Percy. Percy gently patted her on her head and awkwardly removed himself from the table, only to walk into his new best friend: Cardin Winchester.

"Can I help you?" Percy asked, a thin veil of politeness barely dammed up a wall of unstoppable sass. Cardin just smirked and pushed Percy out of the way, right into the back of none other than Mercury Black. "Hey, watch yourself man!"

Cardin and his cronies just walked past with mean chuckles and leers, one of them pushing Velvet into the table so that her soda spilled all over her lap. Coco's grip on her fork began to crush it from the tips of the tines to the blunt end of the handle. Team RWBY all went to stand at Velvet's defense, but it was Percy who took the leap, pulling Cardin back by his left shoulder and decking him. Percy put his hands up for a fight, but was surprised when Cardin instead turned around and looked blankly at him and smiled eerily.

" _We've been looking for you Perseus. Tartarus misses you."_ Team RWBY and CV jumped to their feet when they heard the creaking in Cardin's voice. " _The Eidolon are many, we are mighty, we are hungry, and we will not be denied."_

"Eidolon…?" Percy asked cautiously, his voice taking on a distant edge. "Isn't that a tv show."

Wrong answer.

Cardin's mace crashed into the place where Percy had just stood. As Percy fell back into his seat, Coco released the hem of his shirt and swung herself to a stand, slamming her tray into the side of Cardin's head hard enough to leave an imprint of his head in the metal. Cardin hardly flinched and instead turned to face Coco slowly. Coco's eyes widened slightly before she turned around and grabbed another platter, smashing the edge into his gut.

" _You must be another of Percy's_ friends. _I'm surprised he would dare have one after what he did to his fiancé."_ Everyone at the table's eyes flitted to Percy and noticed his eyes glazed over as if trying to remember something. _"Annabeth~"_

Any words the Eidolon had to say after that went unheard as it's head crashed into the table, shattering the wood into matchsticks. Even the floor cratered as Cardin's head bounced off the concrete.

" _Missed me~."_ An Eidolon spoke from inside a mohawked teenager, only for the teenager to suddenly become imbedded in the wall fifty feet away.

" _So close~."_ Spoke another of the boys as he swung his halberd, only for the pole arm to be batted aside by a bare forearm. Soon he too found a position with his back imbedded in the floor.

" _Maybe next- urk!"_ Percy, apparently having caught on to the pattern gripped the throat of a boy with a sword already batted aside effortlessly. _"We may be defeated, but Nyx will soon send more."_

"Let." Percy lifted the boy off his feet. "Them." He cocked his fist back and glared. "Come." His fist slammed into the boy's face and knocked him backwards, completely upside down.

"Nine and four-fifths." Coco muttered quietly, looking at the mess that had previously been Eidolon controlled Team CRDL. Percy started panting soon as tears of blood slid down his cheeks.

"Let them come…" He whispered to himself. "Let them come. Let them come. Let them come."

He turned to the table, grabbed Coco harshly by the collar, looked deep into her eyes, the bloody tear stains not yet faded. "Rain check." He murmured, dropping her and marching over to Yang, gripping her arm and bodily dragging her out of the cafeteria. "More training."

"How much more?" Yang asked distractedly, her mind still whirring over what had happened.

"Until I can't move my fingers." Percy growled.

* * *

"No holding back." Percy growled, standing at the far side of the arena, matching Yang's bare fists with his own taped ones.

Yang dashed forward and threw a right hook that would have decapitated Percy had he not been pushing forward as well, moving his head just inside her swing and pushing his shoulder into her chest, grabbing her arm and making to flip her over his shoulder, only for her other arm to wrap around his chest and lift him off of the ground, bending backwards and slamming his head into the arena floor.

Percy could barely stand as his ears rang and six Yangs split into twelve and then turned to three and then to one. His hands scrabbled for something to push off of, searching around helplessly for the floor. He eventually raised himself to his feet with wobbling knees and still uncertain footing. He shook his head to clear out the lingering haze and raised his fists again, reengaging Yang in combat.

Yang leapt up briefly and spun, slamming her entire upper body behind a punch that just barely missed Percy's head. Percy brought his own fist around and plowed it into Yang's jaw, knocking her out of her focus and causing her to hesitate for a moment, but it was enough for Percy to leap up and slam his foot down between her shoulders, causing her to hunch forward, rolling forward until she spun around and roundhouse kicked Percy in the head, slamming him back into the ground. His hands began to shake and his vision blurred again, but he got up and charged again, his speed surprising Yang. For someone with a concussion and three broken bones in his hands, he wasn't afraid to charge straight at Yang, popping her twice in the face, unable to hit harder than a love-tap, but still doing his best to make impact. He hopped back half a step and grabbed Yang around the back of the neck, slamming his knee into her chest, and then using his other knee to hit her between the legs which obviously wasn't as effective as it would have been on a guy, but it still sent a shock through her pelvis. Yang started throwing body blows at Percy until he finally hopped back and bent over, spitting up some blood and shaking his head dazedly. Percy's eyes narrowed and he clutched onto his shirt, trying to stop the shaking in his hands. Lilac eyes met sea green and they both of them charged, but this time, almost as if they were dancing, Yang and Percy met in the middle of the arena and began combat, Yang threw a kick and Percy blocked with his forearm, throwing a punch that Yang leaned back out of the way of with ease. Yang threw another punch that met Percy's own, causing both to pull away and spin, their shins meeting as both kicked at the same time, first toward each other's chest, than toward their heads and then toward their legs, each time they were forced to pull back. Without warning, the battle changed, Yang hopped into the air,preparing to slam her elbow into whatever part of Percy she could find, meanwhile, Percy ducked down and slide tackled towards where Yang was, both avoiding each other's attacks. They were facing each other again as soon as Yang landed, their elbows met between them and they both deflected.

Yang pushed away from Percy and suddenly he collapsed.

After a tense moment of silence, with the eight- err, nine, occupants staring at Percy's body blankly, Jaune decided to break the suffocating quiet.

"What the heck was that?!" He demanded, leaning forward in his seat and throwing his hands up like an upset sports fan. Soon chaos followed, with Ruby voicing her agreement and following conversations.

"-We were just fighting-"

"-Is he dead?"

"-That was so awesome!-"

"-What happened?!"

"-He was all like-"

Blake calmly cleared her throat and drew everyone's attention. When she had it, she instantly regretted it and wanted to return it to someone else. She sucked it up and gulped. "Shouldn't we go see if he's okay?"

"...That's probably a good idea." Ren said calmly.

"He's alive!" Yang hollered, waving a thumbs up. "He's also saying something. _Anaklusmos?_ Anyone speak gibberish?"

"That's not gibberish." Pyrrha said, aghast. "It's Mistrali for Undercurrent."

"Or Riptide?"

* * *

"Helloooo~ Wakey Wakey Percy, it's time for fun and games time with your girlfriend!" Percy's eyes opened to a scene that brought back an overwhelming smell of strawberries, s'mores and nostalgia. "G'morning bright-eyes! It's time for me to whip you back into shape."

"Who…?"

"I'm your girlfriend…" She supplied slowly, waiting for him to get it. "Annabeth…? Ringing any bells?"

" **Annabeth."** Percy leapt off the ground and wrapped his arms around the girl, smothering her into his chest kissing the top of her head. "I knew you couldn't be dead!-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, because if you keep going then we're both going to end up crying, so let's just get one thing out of the way: I'm sorry Percy, but I am dead. I only exist here." She prodded his chest, and he felt a warmth surge through him into his heart. "And here." She grasped the sides of his head and kissed him.

"So, I'm hallucinating?"

"No! Not hallucinating! Dreaming." Annabeth corrected, pulling back slightly before she took a fighting stance a little away from him. "I'm your subconscious, and because I'm just that badass, I'm going training you in a more intense capacity, and teach you how to fight like your new team."

"What...what does that mean?" Percy asked, looking around in confusion as his surroundings changed. He went from an open field of wildflowers and stuff to a full contact MMA ring in the span of a few seconds.

"I'm going to fully immerse you in Yang's fighting style, and eventually, in everyone else's." Annabeth frowned and gave Percy a look of disbelief. "And by the way, you've seriously become a man slut. I'm surprised. You never even gave another girl a second look while we were together, and now you're hitting on Yang and giving Blakey a morning striptease, why don't you tell me what that's about?"

"Firstly, I don't remember ever giving Blake a morning striptease, and secondly, I'm not flirting with Yang! We're training." Annabeth nodded her head in faux acceptance and then smacked her forehead.

"Of course! You don't remember. That's why." She shrugged and sighed, looking at him sadly. "Fine! Be a man-whore, but don't just treat it like love isn't a thing. These girls might actually hold feelings for you, and you may not understand what I'm about to tell you-"

"I get that a lot. People tend to assume that I won't understand."

"That's because you act stupid a lot." Annabeth explained playfully. She continued after giving Percy a kiss on the cheek. "I loved you. I loved you to the day I died, but I had lost my mind. I didn't know what I was doing. I had gone insane, and I said things, terrible things, and if you ever remember them, then I want you to remember this too; I didn't mean that. I love you, and I could never hate you, but I'm dead and you're not, and I'd rather you never had to die, so live a good life, find a girlfriend, marry her, get her knocked up and when you die, I'll be here, waiting to say I told you so and poke fun at you for the rest of eternity."

"Okay...so, let me get this straight, my dead ex-girlfriend is currently telling me that I should go get married and have a kid-?"

"Or six or seven...and one of them better be named after me!" Percy smiled and felt something inside him clench up. "Okay, you'll be waking up soon, so let's get started with that training."

Annabeth leapt towards him, throwing two jabs at his face. He leaned back and dodged the first one, batting the second one aside and spinning, and so began Annabeth's version of combat training from hell.


	6. The Plot Curdles: Omake, or spoiler?

**I'm not going to pretend that I wrote this out of the goodness of my slightly deranged heart, because I didn't. I was bored one day and I thought to myself; that would be funny! So I did it, and now, the whole plot's going to blow up in my face because I will never be able to _not_ do this scene. I'll try my best to fit it into my current canon, but it's mostly just an omake, a word that I had never heard before joining this fandom.**

 **Anyway~ I know that a lot of people dislike me because my updates are sporadic at best, but there's a saying; the squeaky wheel gets the oil. It means, if you complain, or, you know, say anything, then I'll be more likely to update, because I do this for more than just the LULZ, I also do it to find the affirmation that my parents never gave me, so please, help out a poor shrinking head and show me love. Please! If you can't show me love, prove to me that you exist, pretty please...**

 _I woke up._

 _It sucked. Ren used up most of the hot water_

 _Pyrrha's giving me that weird stare again, thinking that I'm doing homework, but unfortunately, I have no idea how I'd do any homework that I would actually have._

* * *

 _He's not doing his homework, is he?_ Pyrrha thought to herself.

* * *

 _Anyway, I think that having this Percy guy around will be good for our group. So far, my only male friends are Ren and Yatsuhashi, and they barely talk. Percy's really nice though, so that's a plus. I haven't actually talked to him much, but he did apologize after that whole initiation thing, even though it wasn't his fault._

 _I think I'll go talk to him some more after this "study session", maybe he likes comic books, or maybe he's one of those cool guys...all, suave ladies' men and stuff. That'd suck, but maybe he could help me talk to Weiss. Oh well, only one way to find out._

"Hey Pyrrha, I'm gonna take a break and see how Percy's doing with his training, you wanna tag along?" Pyrrha smiled brightly stood up,smoothing her skirt before nodding.

"That sounds grand!" Her smiled dimmed a bit as her eyes cast downward for a mere moment before returning to meet Jaune's own gaze. The entire moment was caught by Jaune's strangely _un_ oblivous gaze and his own smile faltered too. The silence thickened. "Shall we?"

The silence reigned for a few minutes more as they walked, mysteriously not passing anyone in a school normally bustling with action. The silence thickened, it was like trying to swim in milk; not impossible, but not easy either. "So, umm…" Jaune began, but he stopped again as he came up devoid of topics of conversation. "This rarely happens, I swear, usually I can come up with something anytime…" Jaune trailed off and a mischievous voice spoke up from behind.

"Sure~ that's what they all say, but the statistics show that one in five men~." An eerily recognizable voice joked from behind. For the last few weeks, ever since Percy showed up, that stupid voice had been pestering him. He was ready to strangle the nonentity if only he knew what the hell a nonentity was. "A nonentity is a being that exists solely because it doesn't exist."

 _Really?_ Jaune thought to himself, squinting warily.

"I don't know, it just sounded cool." The voice was snickering not only at its own comment, but also Jaune's nonplussed reaction. As they entered the arena, the pair stopped, both of them feeling horrible, like they had just lost a year off of their lives'. Jaune for having to deal with the annoying chick in his head, and Pyrrha because she could do nothing but fret the entire time they were walking to the classroom, trying to think of some way to tell Jaune that she was in love with him, and she wanted nothing more than for him to look at her the way he did Weiss...or at least that's the cleanest way I could put it. In reality, her thoughts ran more along the lines of: _I want you to force me into one of these classrooms, tear off all of my clothes, and take me on the desk until I see stars and can't walk straight. Then tomorrow we can alternate positions and I can handcuff you to your bed and ride you like a wild stallion until neither of us remembers our own names because we've been moaning each other's names for so long._

Oh lord, she's worse than Blake…

"So, training seems to be going well." Jaune said sarcastically. Percy was sprawled across the ground, his hand cut up and bloody but still clutching his sword, he would never let it go. _"An oath to keep with a final breath."_

Percy was on his feet in mere moments, his eyes darkening into a harsh forest green as his sword spun end over end to embed itself inches from Jaune's head. He was a mere nanosecond behind his blade, grabbing it with practiced ease and dislodging it with a swift jolt, startling Jaune as a voice that wasn't quite his hissed: "Where did you hear that?"

 _"To Storm or Fire the world must fall"_ Jaune's eyes glowed a bright green as he spoke and as he breathed out, noxious looking green mist erupted from his nose. _"I am Delphi, and I send greetings from the akashic clock-"_

"Next time, just send a fruit basket." Percy growled, his sword dangerously close to Jaune's throat, but the voice continued unfazed.

 _"I have come to return something- Single Choice shall end his days-"_ Jaune twitched sporadically before his toxic green gaze returned to Perseus. _"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue."_

Jaune's eyes changed back into their original azure hue and Percy took a step back, his hands shaking. Jaune then looked around and frowned. "What the Hades? Wha- you're- how?"

Percy eyed Jaune nervously and Jaune returned his gaze with one of befuddlement. "What happened Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, placing her hand on his shoulder.

Jaune responded by looking at Pyrrha and asking sharply. "Who's Jaune?" Pyrrha gestured at him and he shook his head. "I'm Percy. Percy Jackson."

The warrior formerly known as Jaune looked down at himself and frowned, patting himself down and then looking over to the body that Percy Jackson tended to inhabit and said simply. "Fuck me."

 _I had planned on it._ Pyrrha thought idly to herself.


	7. Old School, New Student

Neo didn't like this new chick, she needed to go. There's only room in this regime for one psycho lolita bitch, thank you very much. Not to mention how badly she scared Roman. He didn't show it, but this wasn't his usual scared. Roman was _on edge_ around Cinder, he was _wary_ of Percy when he's drunk, but this lady didn't scare him, she _terrified_ him. She didn't look tough, and she hadn't done anything except eat those stupid apples since her first day, but after that gift she gave Roman, he always stayed near Neo, no matter what, he even let her sit in his seat, which never happened. Whoever this chick was, she was going. Now.

"Ooh, lookie, it's the mute chick, wassup Neon?" Neo twitched at Eris' laid back attitude, _she_ was the smarmy one, not this new brat. "Okay, I know, that was mean of me, you're mute, of course you're doing _great!_ "

"Eris! We have work!" Roman called over, swinging his cane with an air of impatience. "Me and Neo are going on an errand, I'll be back tomorrow morning."

"Aww, but Neo's such a good conversationalist." Eris threw herself back onto the couch in exasperation, rolling her eyes. "Come back soon, Neo!"

As Neo rolled her own eyes and lilted after Roman, he began to type furiously on his scroll, not looking down at his hand. "Neo, you remember Percy, right?" Neo nodded blinked once, both eyes brown. A silent yes. "I need you to find him for me, bring him around to Junior's place, tell him that I want to talk to him."

Neo smirked at Roman and was about to jaunt along on her merry way until something pinged at the back of her mind. ' _What about you?'_

Roman simply gave her a broad smirk and waved her along. "I'll head over to Junior's, give him some time to prepare for Percy again." Neo nodded, she knew that Roman wasn't anywhere near that nuts _goddess_ chick. "Now go. And hurry!"

* * *

Waking up from the infirmary for the third time in as many days was embarrassing, doing so in one's underwear was worse. Percy wished that he was still wearing pants, he was currently being tended to by Blake and he knew that if he- err, reacted, he'd never hear the end of it from Yang. She'd already seen him naked once, however, fortunately she hadn't had a camera.

"Good morning" Blake entered, distracted. She waltzed to his bed with a small smile on her face, her nose still in a book with a mysteriously blank book sleeve. She plopped herself into the seat beside his bed with a _humph_ and glanced up at him. "You seem to be feeling better."

"I'm awake, and I don't think I have a concussion, but there's only one way to check. What color are your underwear?"

"Purple, would you like to see?"

"Yup, got a concussion, I'll wake up soon." Blake gave a light laugh and shook her head. She closed her book and put it on her lap, crossing her legs.

"I'm kidding, you're fine." Blake's tone suddenly sobered up and she leaned forward, staring hard into Percy's eyes. "But I need to know. Who are you?"

"What do you mean?" Percy replied, his own eyes becoming darker. He knew what she meant, but he was hoping to avoid the question for as long as possible, mostly because he wasn't entirely sure himself.

"When you first came to Beacon, you had no clue what aura was, but you still fought like a man possessed. You can heal yourself with water, and you sneeze earthquakes, but it's not your semblance. You've been improving in Yang's lessons by leaps and bounds, despite having three broken bones in your left hand and five in the right. You're insanely strong, but you just lost most of your memories. How? And don't even get me started on that amorphous-...entity that came after you and erased most of your memories. And I looked up your name, it just struck me as strange, I'd never heard of the name Jackson. It turns out, no one has had that name for ninety years. So who are you?" Blake paused, panting slightly after having exploded in interrogation. Percy opened his mouth but she cut him off. "Oh! And then there's the fact that despite having no memories at all, and apparently having never been to Mistral, you knew Mistrali! What does _Anaklusmos_ mean to you? And who's Annabeth!?"

"Hello sweetie~" A voice called from the doorway. Blake turned to face the nurse to tell her off, but when she saw the nurse, she felt something off. She smelled like sulphur and a bitter scent reminiscent of a bat, she looked normal, but even her appearance was hazy, like she was only kinda a nurse, and sorta something else… "I'm here for Perseus Jackson. The Lady will see you now."

"We-" Blake stopped when Percy's eyes darkened and his hand tightened around her wrist.

"Aww, Percy! You're all-...mortal and stuff...it's honestly disgusting! I thought that after Tartarus, the gods would make you immortal for your bravery and valor, but noo~, they decided that they wanted you dead, that's so sad." A tall woman draped in a black sari traipsed in, a bouquet of midnight black roses clutched in her hand as her long, plaited black hair bounced with each graceful step. Blake stood when she saw the shadows around the room darken and coalesce around her. "No, don't stand up, please, I brought my own seat. I'm simply here to talk."

"Well, as you can see, I'm not going anywhere." Percy gestured towards his state lying on the bed helplessly. "So go ahead, introduce yourself."

"I am Nyx, the goddess of the night and of the deepest darkness, I am the queen of Tartarus and the mother of doom, chaos, sleep, nightmares and despair. I frightened away Zeus as he pursued my son. I am not just the goddess of the night, I am the night." She introduced herself with a flourish and lounged on a throne of shadows that she had drawn toward herself in the corner. "But you can just call me The Lady."

"Well, 'The Lady', I'm Percy Jackson, and I've recently become an amnesiac, so you can kiss my shapely, tanned ass." His snark disappeared and he levelled a dark gaze on the lady. Nyx frowned as well and leaned forward, her lips pursed in disappointment.

"I was expecting more sarcastic banter, perhaps a witty and distracting pick-up line, but since it's obvious that that went out the window, I suppose I'll just go out and say it." Nyx brushed off her sari and stood, distributing the shadows again. "I'm going to give you one chance. Sacrifice one of your friends and everyone lives and I'll join your side, or don't and go into the coming fight with all your friends lined up in neat little rows to be slaughtered by hoards of monsters from the pits of Tartarus."

"Why?" Blake asked, looking between The Lady's face and the door, silently praying for another of her teammates to walk in and help them. Without Gambol Shroud, she'd be useless in a fight. "Why would you offer to join us for a sacrifice?"

"Because heroes are so predictable. Heroes are stupidly devoted to serving the greater good, and I like watching them tear themselves up to decide what to do." Nyx stopped for a moment and smiled. "So, what will it be? The greater go-"

Percy interrupted her with a full bellied laugh, tilting his head back and snorting a few times. Blake looked at him, her eyes narrowed in worry as Percy's chuckling slowed. He looked over toward Blake and gestured emphatically, obviously amused. "I don't think she got the memo!"

"What memo…?" Nyx asked hesitantly, leaning forward angrily.

"I'm no hero. I'm just a guy tryin' to get by." Percy rolled over in bed and began to get up. "I'm surrounded by people who can fight a hundred times better than I can. I'd just get in their way."

"So, what? You just surrender?" Nyx asked. The conversation was not going in the direction she hoped it would. "You're going to let your friends go out on the battlefield to die for you? Their weapons cannot harm me, their precious auras feed me. I consume their darkness and their pain. Here, I am undefeatable."

"Then what's the point of me fighting you?"

Nyx was slow to answer. "...Because you can...you're morally ob- but, why wouldn't you?!" Nyx looked incredulous, running her hand down her face in stress before standing up and beginning to pace the room. "The only person who can defeat us is you, and the only reason we're here is you! You're the whole point! The Wizard, the Maidens, they can play their games, but we're here to pull you into this war, we're here to get you involved. Chaos called me from the depths of hell to fight you, and then he _benched_ you?!"

"What in the seven circles of hell are you talking about?" Percy demanded. Nyx stopped and turned to him, leveling her gaze toward him and with a single wave, driving both him Blake into a deep sleep.

As Blake woke up, her mind was suddenly alight with questions, the most prevalent of which being: _Why am I in bed with Percy?!_ It's not that she didn't like it, he was one of the five guys she knows that aren't assholes, but still, someone in hell must have a seriously demented sense of humor if they thought this was funny. The second question: _What was that darkness chick talking about?_

"You're awake." It was less a question and more of a statement. Professor Ozpin sat in a chair off to the side of the room, sipping on a cup of coffee as his eyes travelled across his scroll. "I'm afraid that you missed Professor Port's class, but after the day you had, I'll allow it this once, but you should both hurry to Professor Oobleck's class. I believe today you're going to be reviewing the Battle of Self, I wouldn't miss it if I were you, Perseus."

"Percy." He corrected instinctually. He hated it when people did that. "Perseus is an old dead dude who killed that Medusa lady."

"Fine, I'll remember that, _Percy._ " It obviously pained him, if just a little, to speak to a student so casually, but he knew that this was the best way to guide Chiron's pupil. "Run along now, Dr. Oobleck does not like to be kept waiting."

* * *

Oobleck was less than pleased by Blake and Percy's tardiness. He was even less approving of the fact that Percy couldn't tell him anything about Remnant's history.

"Fine!" Oobleck's usually stern but composed temper flared and he lashed out, spilling some of his coffee on the desk which promptly caught on fire. "Is there any history that you do know, Mr. Jackson?! Any iota of memory of any kind?! Please, illuminate me in whatever history you do know?!"

Most of the class was bristling with suppressed laughter and the occasional chuckle, however, team RWBY, who knew of Percy's recent amnesia and were sworn to secrecy merely winced at the Doctor's explosion.

"Racism." Percy began, looking down, wringing his hands. "There was a man, almost eighty years ago, who was denied draft into the army because he was too weak to hold a gun, his name was Adolf Hitler. He was angry. He had so much hate in him that he had to find someone to let it out on, and he found them. They were the Jews. The Jews didn't do anything wrong, but they were blamed anyway because they were easy targets. He believed in a thing call Aryan supremacy, and he thrusted that belief on everyone else. He convinced people that they were inferior if they weren't blonde haired and blue eyed, he told people that it was the Jew's fault for their lot in life, and in the ashes of a war that tore their nation apart, they were just waiting for someone to blame, and they found them." He looked up and stared at Oobleck, his eyes darkening.

"His hate, and his search for someone to blame was what started one of the bloodiest wars in history. It shook nations and resulted in the mass homicide of nearly an entire culture."

Hitler made 'concentration camps' and he would force Jews into them, depriving them of necessary food and starved them until they finally would be ordered to strip and enter a 'shower', where they were exposed to horribly poisonous chemicals and were killed in droves, shaved, herded and slaughtered, finally burned, like cattle, but that wasn't the worst part. The war brought about diseases and poisons that would kill and maim thousands and resulted in the creation of the most deadly weapon ever made. The A-bomb. It was a single explosive that could destroy an entire city in mere seconds. It was so powerful that it burned shadows of its victims into walls and once the explosion was over, it left behind radiation that could kill people miles away, and it poisoned the very ground, leaving it uninhabitable for decades. This whole war started because one man was angry enough to throw the first stone. So yeah, my history sucks, but all history sucks. Peace is an illusion, and violence is the blood of civilization. War is brewing or war is happening, there's history for you, all summed up."

By the end of his rant, Percy was hunched in anger and breathing hard, his finger waggling angrily at Oobleck, whose temper had turned into sudden pride. "You, Mr. Jackson, seem to have only grasped the barest of the bones of history, though I must say, you're not far from the truth, but your pessimism is...distressing. Please return to your seat, and may I ask, what happened to the _Adolf_ person?"

"He killed his wife, his children, and then blew his own brains out." Percy stopped and turned to Cardin. "Racism is usually a sign of misplaced anger. So who are you really angry at, Cardin?"

Team RWBY observed the entire exchange with unhinged jaws and clouded eyes. Blake was even more curious about Percy now, seeing his unconventional views on racism and his subtle nudges at Cardin's psyche. Yang was only interested in the horrible things she'd have done to this Hitler guy if she ever got her hands on him. Weiss was trying her hardest to not draw comparisons to the first Schnee, but it was hard. Ruby felt like vomiting, the entire story reeked of skepticism and disgust, hate barely hidden behind a clenched jaw, she knew what that looked like, and so did Jaune, sitting only three seats over from her. Cardin looked at him like that, and Ruby had noticed it as well.

Doctor Oobleck tried to salvage the rest of his class time, but none of the students had broken out of their shock, and most were still staring at Percy with wide eyes. Finally, acknowledging that he would get nowhere with his class today, he simply began writing on the board. He wrote four very simple lines that caused Percy's head to spin.

 _We Are Here To Create History_

 _Not Repeat It._

 _So Let Us Learn From It,_

 _Or Doom Our Children To It._

He had heard those lines somewhere before, or maybe they just meant something more to him because he didn't even know his own history, or maybe history was here to haunt him again, in its malignant, nonexistent way, it nudged at his brain occasionally, just to say: _I'm Here~ Don't ignore me!_ He wished it would stop, but he finally realized what he needed. He needed to remember. He didn't want to, but he had to. He felt the scars on his mind, they finally sunk in. He felt a pain that he had never known before, a hollow, searing stab that seemed to gouge out his heart and then heat up his chest from the inside. He knew what it was without any memory. He had lost friends, and he'd be damned if he let that happen again.

He collapsed into his chair, his hands cold and his knees weak, but when Yang nudged him and silently asked if he was okay, he simply nodded distractedly. The bell rang soon after and as Percy left Oobleck's class, the doctor frowned and gazed over his glasses at Percy's hunched retreating form. "I don't think I'll have to worry about history repeating with that one. He's about as abnormal as they get."

* * *

"Oh look, combat class again, how did I see this coming?" Percy asked sarcastically, leaning his head heavily on a pillar that stood beside him. He wracked his brain for hours, trying to pry some figment of information, or iota of reality from his memory. So far, the only things he could remember had to do with a flash of blonde hair, a glowing bronze light and the words: _What ho?_

As he began to drift off, he suddenly heard professor Goodwitch's crop slamming into the pillar above his head. He shot up instantly and yelped. "I didn't do it!" Goodwitch's eyes were locked onto Percy's own as he blinked twice, looking down at the arena as Cardin stared up at him with an unrestrained smirk. He had just defeated Jaune and was looking for someone else to fight, someone he thought he could beat. Everyone had seen the tapes of Percy getting his ass handed to him by Yang over and over again, but no one seemed to remember Percy kicking the entirety of team CRDL's collective asses. Percy felt like there had to be a good reason for it, but his mind came up blank except for one: _mist._

"Oh! You want me to fight?!" Percy asked incredulously, he had zoned out for a while there. Goodwitch sighed and nodded, gesturing for Percy to continue to the arena. Without waiting, Percy drew his temporary sword and looked at it discontentedly. It was awkward, it was weighty, and it felt like it was just a stick tied to a bowling ball which he had to hold onto. Sucked was the weakest word he had for it. "I'm ready, I guess."

If Percy's sword was uncomfortable, his clothing was worse. Atlas issued armor was the best in the business and since Percy needed something standardized and, well...bland, it was the first thing that came to mind, but it was so tight around the armpits, and it chafed along his waist, and it was just, in general, a pain in the ass, literally, it constantly gave him a wedgie.

"Begin." Glynda said calmly, watching in apathy as these children threw their weight around pretending to be warriors. They were slow, sloppy and dim-witted, and they made mistakes that made her cringe, and Percy was the worst of all. He fought like a wild-child, no wits about him, no style, no finesse, just patternless attacks and quick footing. Finally, Cardin had a clear shot, Percy had overstepped for a sword strike, and was currently within arm's reach of the bulkier fighter. Glynda saw Cardin's attack from a mile away. With the obvious weight advantage, and the fact that his weapon was just as effective up close as it was slightly farther away, the overhead swing was an obvious choice.

It was also the wrong one.

Perseus did the unthinkable in the midst of battle, dropping his sword and hitting the dirt, swinging his leg in a low sweep. Cardin was off of his feet just in time for Percy to hop back onto his and lash out with a vicious two-knee kick straight into his jaw, pulling his head down into the blow with both hands on the denser boy's crown. Cardin stumbled back a few steps, but his aura was still relatively uninjured, and he thought he had the upper hand as long as he kept the battle at medium to long range with Percy unarmed. Instead, Percy charged headlong into the battle, drawing his fist back and yelling loudly. Carding simply prepared for a horizontal swing and was met with air. Percy stopped yelling as soon as got within hitting distance, instead choosing to slide tackle Cardin to the ground and slam his elbow across the downed boy's temple.

"This battle is over, Mr. Jackson. I commend you on your unorthodox style and versatile combat skills, however, muay thai is not a useful tactic against Grimm unless backed with either a strong aura, which you lack, or a sufficient weapon, which you also lack. Not to mention the fact that you completely disregarded your sword from the very beginning of the fight." Glynda's every word was meant to be a barb to tear down any semblance of pride that any student might have. It worked well so far,but Percy truly didn't care. He didn't have any pride left to give up.

"Mr. Jackson." Ozpin called, emerging mysteriously from a shadowy corner of the room, directly underneath the stadium seating. His cane tapped along the floor absently, and his mug of coffee drifted soothing vapors into the air. He stopped a few feet away from Percy and used his cane to poke into the armor that Atlas had leant him, and with a sudden burst of wind, the armor scattered, each piece falling away instantly as Ozpin put his cane back on the floor. The headmaster then moved to Glynda, handing her his coffee as she groaned, growled and grimaced at the same time.

Meanwhile, the entire classroom had gone silent. Ozpin was a figure of authority that no one dared to question, and from what they had just seen, that was going to be continued for a while. Percy's ADHD helped him to observe the world almost in slow motion, which was how he had seen _one_ of the slashes that Ozpin had made on his armor, while the rest of the class had caught two _at best,_ due to the heightened senses that their aura granted them. As Ozpin reached down to grab the sword from the floor, the murmuring began. No one had seen Ozpin in any position but ramrod straight, and now he was bending over to grab a discarded sword.

Wordlessly, the headmaster met Percy's curious gaze and smirked conspiratorially, chucking the sword out of the arena with ease, despite it weighing far more than it should. He turned to face Percy, and as the tension mounted, he took his cane and jabbed it into the ground, leaving a perfect circle with nary a crack or splinter of stone around it.

"What's in your pocket?" Ozpin's question caught Percy off-guard, causing him to blink a few times before going to check his pocket.

"There's nothi-" As he was talking, he pulled his hand out of his pocket and found it holding onto a nondescript ink pen. "When did that get there?"

"It was always there, you just refused to accept it. Demigods are just as susceptible to the mist as mortals are." Ozpin extracted his cane from the ground and turned to view the class. He scanned the crowd for a few moments before his eyes alighted on the perfect candidate. "Miss Xiao Long, perhaps you'd like to fight Mr. Jackson?"

"No thanks!" Ozpin's eyes widened momentarily, but he kept his cool and simply continued looking, his eyes spotting someone else, quite nearby that would probably do well with a lesson in spontaneity.

"How about you, Miss Schnee?" Weiss' eyes widened almost comically, she hadn't been planning on doing any fighting, she wasn't on the allotted schedule, but the headmaster himself had asked her to do this, she'd be remiss to ignore his honest invitation. She nodded mutely, standing suddenly and marching to the stairs with a singular purpose: to show off for Ozpin. "Thank you."

Weiss looked Percy up and down a few times. Without the armor on, one could tell that he wasn't as broad as Cardin, and he was rather unintimidating in his T-shirt and jeans, especially since he was armed by what appeared to be a writing utensil worth about a single lien. "I'm kinda confused here. What am I supposed to be doing?"

"Mr. Jackson, have you ever heard the term that the pen is mightier than the sword?" Ozpin inquired. Percy nodded and Ozpin gestured to the pen. "Take the cap off and find out for yourself."

"Are you making fun of me?" Percy asked, looking between the pen and Ozpin. Ozpin simply shrugged while smiling coyly.

"Begin." Ozpin replied calmly. Weiss lunged toward Percy with no intent to show mercy. Percy jumped sideways and rolled to a crouch beside Weiss.

Percy sighed. If Ozpin was just screwing with him, he would be so angry. He'd beat Weiss with his fists if he had to. He flicked the cap off of the pen and immediately, like a tidal wave, memories...

" _Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood…"_

" _Can I have your apple…"_

" _You drool when you sleep…"_

" _I said Hello to the poodle…"_

" _The sea doesn't like to be restrained…"_

The words practically blew him away, but it was the other memories that really made him shiver. A huge dog, the size of a small car, barreling at him. A horse and an eagle duking it out on the beach, sea whipping at me with tendrils of wind and rain.

" _Hail, Perseus Jackson, son of the sea god…"_

Weiss had lunged at him in the instant it took for his memories to reemerge. He remembered things...not everything, but things...like how to use Riptide. He quickly parried the blow with a grace very similar to Weiss, except almost...fluid.

" _Braccas Meas Vescimini!"_ Percy taunted, his stance changing into a style similar to Pyrrha's, who began to chuckle like a child at the comment. Weiss didn't respond to whatever he had just said, and instead she lunged again, spinning at the last moment and slashing at Percy's exposed side, nicking his open arm, leaving a red mark that continued to spread slowly. Percy pushed himself away from Weiss, wincing at the cut across his arm. Percy took a few steps back and tried to steady himself, but before he could take a breath, Weiss lept forward, gliding across the floor and giving a quick slash, icicles erupting from midair, splintering against the blade of his sword, but still pelting him harshly. Percy rolled forward, past Weiss, slamming the flat of his blade into her shins, but as the two of them stood, Percy analyzed Weiss carefully and sighed, picking up the cap to his pen and placing it back in his pocket. "I surrender...Weiss just isn't the right type of- ow! That does _**not**_ feel good! That is one sharp Epee!"

"I thought you had your aura unlocked, Mr. Jackson, I should know, I unlocked it." Glynda took two steps forward and stopped just beside Ozpin, who held her back while eyeing Percy concernedly. "How were you even capable of healing this quickly?"

" _Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink._ " Jaune's voice echoed across the room eerily, his eyes hazy with green gas streaming down his face out of his mouth. " _Percy Jackson took a sword and turned to dust the Titan Lord."_

The whole class stared at Jaune with trepidation, Ren especially, something in Jaune's aura was seeping out as if it had suddenly been punctured like a basketball or a tire.

Percy looked around the room and asked loudly. "Does he do that often?"

 _ **Omake.**_

The Warrior is a Child

Percy sat in the shower, his back against the wall and his head in his hands, barely containing his sobs. He could feel it, wiggling in the back of his head, a feeling he never wanted to feel again. Homesickness.

Percy Jackson, slayer of Titans and Bane of Giants, Prince of the Seven Seas and (previous) Maestro of Weaponry wanted his mom.

He wanted nothing more than to sit on the couch with her and a stupid movie, eating chocolate chip cookies and listening to her tell stories about his dad. He was afraid, he was tired, he was so sad, and he felt like he didn't fit in his own body. He just wanted his mom to come into the room and smile at him, running her hands through his hair and tell him that it would be okay.

He looked up, panicked, when he heard a knock on the door, and quickly went back to his shower, trying to stand up, but failing miserably, and falling to the ground.

"Hey! Percy, you alright?!" Yang asked, coming into the room to see Percy, spread eagle on the floor, silently sobbing as he let the water run over his body. She rushed towards him quickly, pulling him up into a sitting position and wrapping a towel around him.

"Hey," She cooed softly, rubbing his back. "it's alright, what's wrong?" Percy shoved his face into her shoulder and continued crying, unable to stop as Yang whispered comforting words in his ear.

Weiss leaned in to see what was taking so long and her heart dropped. Percy was openly weeping on Yang's pajamas, his entire face contorted into a look of pain so unbearable that it made her own eyes glisten with tears. Instead of interrupting them, Weiss simply turned around, sucked up her pride and went to JNPR's room for their shower.

Blake and Ruby watched in confusion as Weiss exited the bathroom, rubbing her eyes furiously. Ruby eyed the bathroom door hesitantly, tiptoeing nearer as silently as she could, until suddenly the water stopped running.

As soon as the water stopped, Blake gripped Ruby's shoulder and shook her head seriously. "Don't." Ruby trusted her teammate's decision and went back to her bed disappointedly.

Meanwhile in the bathroom, Percy's crying slowed to sniffles and he could gasp out small sentences.

"Thank you Yang." Yang wrapped her arm tighter around his shoulders, any thought of sexual innuendos far from her mind. "I feel it. I feel all of those things that I had bottled up inside me for so long. All that pain, all that sadness, loneliness, fear. It's all there again."

"It's gonna be okay Percy, you're going to be fine, we're here for you." Yang soothingly murmured comforting words into Percy's hair while her hands rubbed along his scarred arm and the other cupped his cheek. She had known that one day, as the resident big sister, she'd have to comfort someone during an emotional breakdown, but she assumed it would be Ruby, not Percy. Percy was strong willed, sarcastic, confident and relatively quick-witted, she hadn't seen this coming.

"Yang. Don't tell Ruby, or Weiss, or Blake, but I'm so tired. I just want to give up. I jus-" Yang gripped him towards her own shoulder and he stifled a sob.

"I just want to go home." Yang did too, she understood missing family, and she understood why being so far from home was hard. Despite having Ruby nearby, Beacon didn't feel enough like home for her to ever relax. She felt like she was sleeping on needles. "Yang..."

"What's wrong?" Yang forced down the instant 'Ruby' that almost slipped out.

"I want my mom."

Yang took a deep breath and let her chin fall on Percy's head, her mind alight with barbs and retorts of unfairness and stories about how she lost two mothers, but instead, she let out how she really felt.

"I do too."

Blake had heard it all and felt a burning behind her eyes as she tried to smother tears. "I do too." She whispered.

As Yang helped Percy off the floor, both too emotionally drained to care that he was naked, Yang stepped out of the bathroom and began to change whilst Percy rubbed furiously at his eyes to get rid of the rim of red he had accumulated. Blake simply nodded at Yang as she entered. Yang knew. She always knew. She shot Blake a warning look, but she didn't need the look, Percy's secret would follow the three to their graves.

Percy followed close behind, mellowing out a fragile smile, but his eyes still shimmering in an ethereal light. Blake sent him a half smile, her own eyes still threatening a revolt. She wanted to hug Percy too, tell him it would all be okay, but she didn't want him to know that she had heard. Ruby hadn't heard and immediately dashed to Percy's side, looking him over for marks and bruises. "Did you hurt yourself when you fell? Are you okay?"

"Ruby." She stopped as Percy leaned down, he was easily a foot and a half taller than her. "I'm not alright, but I'm better." He pulled her into a hug and she tightened her grip around his waist.

"Perseus." Weiss called, her tone lacking its usual superiority and ice. "I think I speak for us all when I say that I would be honored if you would dance with me on Sunday."

"That sounds like fun."


	8. Author's Note

**This is an Author's Note, sorry.**

I generally despise writing Author's Notes, especially after my depression fueled quit earlier, but this needs to be done.

I have swamped myself more than I can handle. I have taken up far too many stories at one time, and there is only one way for me to fairly decide which story should be continued, and which should be delayed, therefore, I have put a poll on my profile, and I would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to respond to that poll, because I will be taking it down on August fifteenth, and at that time, the final decision will be made. Thank you for being understanding, and if you're not understanding than that's too bad; Assbutt.

Noraspace/Mister Tea Time

I will be putting up chapters for both Cowboys and Huntsmen and The Dust of the Earth, but if I get votes for another story, then I will focus on that story instead.

Many of you have noticed that the poll is not showing up on my bio, so I suppose I'll just have you leave a PM or a review with your top two favorite stories, and the one with the most votes will end up on top of my "to do" list! Thank you!


	9. What did you expect to happen?

Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out. Aura training sucked when ADHD was a defining factor to your entire personality. Percy's mind was bouncing around the room like a superball. Ooh! Imagine having a superball in a box made of vibranium. The vibranium never absorbs the energy and the superball just keeps bouncing! Dang it! Focus! Ren is focused, even Ruby looks relatively focused, even though with her face all relaxed like that she looked twelve. How old is Ozpin? Or Glynda?

"How does Ozpin look like a thirty year old when his hair is so silver?!" Percy finally demanded, drawing a disappointed glance from Ren and a quick ' _hush'_ from Ruby.

"Percy, this is extremely important…" Ren trailed off. His vague statement just drew a groan from Percy.

"Why?!"

"Because parts of your memories are missing!" Ren's voice didn't raise so much as harden, but compared to his usual unflappable demeanor, it was practically an explosion.

"No they-". Percy's voice caught in his throat as he realized the truth behind Ren's comment. What did he have for lunch? How did he go from his fight with Weiss to meditation with Ren? When did he sleep? "But-...I do remember…"

His voice sounded weak even to himself. The cat was finally out of the bag, and Percy could no longer deny it. Something was wrong in Percy's head. Maybe it was because of that weird guy mucking about in his head, or maybe he was just losing it, surrounded by entirely unfamiliar people. Ren put his hand on Percy's shoulder and penetrated deep into Percy's psyche with his magenta gaze. "I believe I can help you, but only if you'll let me see into your soul."

"Fine." Percy said. _**It was not fine**_. "How does this work?"

"Close your eyes and relax. Let your mind flow where it wants to, and force your fear from your mind. Find a calm place, and just relax." Percy tried to relax. He really did want this to go away, but there was something there, in the back of his mind, like a warning sign that he couldn't quite read, like his dyslexia was showing up even in his mind.

"There's a door, in a room." Ren's eyes were closed and his hand was out, almost like it was grabbing onto something in front of Percy. Percy hurriedly closed his eyes again and focused on what Ren was describing. "There's a light coming from behind the door, but the room itself is dark, it's hard to see."

Percy envisioned it. The door was the same one as his apartment door back in Queens, with the knocker and everything, but as the room began to take shape, Percy realized that the room was no longer in his mind. He was in the room. "Trippy…"

"You get used to it." Ren murmured from beside him, seemingly unimpressed by the fact that he was in Percy's mind. Percy eyed Ren warily but continued through the door into an open pavilion, where thousands of armor clad warriors slammed their weapons on the ground in a unison beat with a pounding drum. In the center of the amphitheater, a bonfire raised higher and higher with each pound of the weapons. As the flame raised, and the chanting grew louder, a young man emerged from the flames, carrying in his upraised hands a burlap bag, soaked through with a gold liquid and a glowing sword. "That, however, is new."

" _Children of Greece and Legionnaires of Rome, I have returned, I present to you the final head of the Lernean Hydra, and I give honor to my trainer and mentor, Percy Jackson."_

Time began to skip forward, the fire died down and the daylight came and went, inversely proportional to the light in the sky. This time it was a woman who exited the flames, a quiver across her back and a peacock under her arm, squawking indignantly. Her eyes were covered in sunglasses, and she wore a flimsy red leather jacket.

" _I'm back, bitches, and I just wanna shout out to all my friends and my BFF Percy!"_

It continued like this, and it just got worse, soon, Percy was completely forgotten. There was someone new, but Percy didn't seem to mind.

" _Sup."_ The last was a guy, he didn't even bother stopping, announcing himself or noticing anybody else, simply walking into the waiting arms of someone who promptly grabbed him and pulled him into a dark corner to do unspeakable things.

The memories were less coherent as things went on. Percy was leaning back on the beach, sleeping calmly as the waves split apart to greet him. A gorgeous blonde girl with a light tan and deep gray eyes. " _Percy! There you are! It's almost time for sword practice!"_

" _Annabeth, you know I love you so much, so very much, but why do you have to disrupt nap time?!"_ Percy sighed and stood, cupping Annabeth's face and kissing her passionately. The two separate for a mere moment before Annabeth suddenly pushes Percy back, drawing a sword from her waist and holding in front of her.

" _En Garde!"_

" _I'm not French."_

" _Donc, vous ne parlez pas Francais?"_

" _You're going to speak in French all day now, aren't you?"_ Percy asked, drawing a similar bronze sword. Ren and Percy 2.0 stepped back and Percy 2.0 covered his eyes.

"No, I remember this now, I don't want this back. I don't want to remember this." Ren patted Percy on the back, but when he looked up, it was no longer Ren, it was Rick again.

"Hello Percy." Rick said sadly, his form shimmering. "You have questions. Some, you probably didn't know you had, but I don't have many answers. You need to find Chaos. He is, unfortunately, in control right now. If you want answers, find him."

"Where?" Percy demanded, falling to his knees in desperation.

"Get lost and you shall find." Rick said, winking out of existence, along with the rest of the beach.

As the world faded to black, Percy ran his hand through his hair and whispered. "Why can't I just get a straight answer? Just once?"

Rick popped back up again, nodded sympathetically and said quickly. "Peter Port's classroom. But if anybody asks what I said, it was the first one."

"Thank you." Percy groaned and rubbed his brow as Rick disappeared. "Why cou-"

"Hey!" Rick interrupted, reappearing suddenly.

"Son of a-"

"Do you still have that scarf that Atropos gave you?" Percy stared at Rick for a few moments before he sighed and shook his head.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Percy replied tiredly.

" _Oh! Ah! Yeah, that'd be me!"_ Chaos announced in a sing-song lilt. _"You see, this next part that Percy does, it's gonna be important that he remembers doing it. Maybe he has these memories from before, but I'm a sadistic puppeteer, I want to make him watch as his past self messes up in the same way. Over. And. Over."_

A blurry image of Chaos appeared beside the memory of Annabeth on the beach, drawing Percy to glare at him and growl under his breath. _"You want to find me? You want your memories back? You want to find your purpose for living? You want peace? You want revenge?"_ Chaos punctuated each question with a shrill shrieking in the background and a spike of pain rocketing through Percy's head. _"In the words of Vergil:_ _The gates of Hell are open day and night-_ _oh, screw it! The path to heaven_ _ **is**_ _Hell! You want your new memories? Prepare to trudge through the old!"_

Percy let the pregnant pause hang in the air as the image of Chaos' chest heaved up and down, his face red with rage. As he began to slow down and the screeching returned to a subtle shriek, Percy finally spoke up. "So what does that have to do with a scarf?"

The image of Chaos blurred for a moment and Percy's entire mind imploded, thousands of images flashed across it. A hodgepodge tape loop of every explosion that Percy had ever seen or heard flashed through his head at once, crushing his psyche with the noise and the light and the pressure. The searing heat ripped through the barriers of what he thought was real, and what was not, and he curled up into himself, trying to protect his mind from his mind. Pain was everywhere. His mind told itself that it was dying. Every nerve was telling every other nerve that everything was on fire, and as soon as it was there, it was gone.

" _That is a taste of the power I have in here, so shut up, turn off your phone, and enjoy this feature presentation."_ Percy peeked his head out from between his knees and watched as his past self laughed and crossed blades with his fiancee.

Percy dipped to the right as a drakon bone sword cleaved through the air just to the left of his head. Annabeth followed up with a feint horizontal slash and stepped into Percy's guard to pommel butt him in the face. He just stepped in with her, dropped his sword to the ground, wrapped both arms around her neck and pulled her into a searing kiss. Annabeth did her best to stay in the game, but her grip still loosened slightly and Percy capitalized on it. With both of their blades on the ground, the pair broke apart and adopted new positions. Annabeth held her hands firmly in front of her, keeping a solid Pankration stance. Percy kept his body looser and allowed his arms to sway as he bounced on the balls of his feet. Percy watched as his past self suddenly stood straight as a rail and Annabeth did the same. Both returned to their swords and began to really try and kill each other. They no longer held back, and it was clear who was winning.

Percy was the greatest swordsman of the last three-hundred years (after his rematch with Chrysaor), it was never in doubt of whether or not he could win. Now, he was simply forced to watch as his mind regained control of his body as Annabeth's body slid down his blade. Her blood splotched the sand and dripped down his sword, all the way to the pommel, making his grip on the blade even weaker than his grip on sanity.

" _Annabeth…"_ He hesitantly whispered.

She looked up into his eyes and her dark, stormy gray examined him again, tearing him apart with a glare that could smelt ore. _"You should have been the one who died. They didn't deserve it. You did."_

" _No, don't say that. Please, don't say that Annabeth."_ Percy implored, his breathing becoming shallow as he choked back sobs. Both Percy's felt the sting of tears on their cheeks, and both watched as their Annabeth tore a hole in their soul too big to be filled with one person.

" _Zoe Nightshade, Bianca Di Angelo, Daedalus, Charles Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, Lee Fletcher, Michael Yew, Luke Castellan, Ethan Nakamura."_ Annabeth continued to lay there, chanting the names of those who died during the battle of Manhattan as her Percy clung to her and pleaded that she stop, that she save her breath, that she hold on just a little while longer. Someone would come. Someone would help her. He clung to her and told her that it would be alright.

" _I hope you never forget how many people died for you Percy Jackson. I hope it haunts you until your last breath. I pray you die with their names on your lips, because you didn't deserve to escape Tartarus."_ Percy kept shaking his head and muttering to himself until he couldn't stop it anymore. It had to be false, there was no way that Annabeth would say that stuff, she loved him, there was no way she would honestly curse Percy. It had to be a trick, or an illusion, there's no way it's real.

" _It's an illusion."_ Percy gave a bark of hysterical laughter and pushed his face into his hands, trying to rub out whatever it was that was making him see this. _"There's no way this is real, this can't be real. This isn't real. It's not real. It's not real. Not real. Not real. Not real…"_

Another camper approached Percy on the beach and his eyes were instantly drawn to the blood splattered across the pale golden sand. _"What the Hades is going on? Mr. Jackson! What is this?"_

" _Don't worry, Mavis, it's not real. It's fake, it has to be fake, why would Annabeth hate me if it were real. It's not real. It's not real. It's not real. It can't be real."_ Percy began to rock back and forth as he clutched Annabeth to his chest, giggling maniacally. He looked up at Mavis, his eyes wide and pleading. _"Chiron will know what to do. He will. Get Chiron. He has to know it's fake. Please get him. It's not real. Don't worry. She's really fine, because it's not real. I'm not a murderer. It's not real."_

" _I'll go get Chiron."_ Mavis backpedaled a few steps and then began to book it to the Big House. The observing Percy stood up, began to wipe furiously at his eyes and followed Mavis into the distance. What happened next was already searing itself back into his memory, there was no need to watch the witch hunt again.

"So what now?" Observing Percy asked. "You gonna make me watch as the camp ran me out of New York? You gonna make me watch as my mother stared me down with completely blank eyes. Not even knowing her own son? You're trying to break my heart? Well, it's pretty freaking broken now! Are you happy?"

" _Not yet!"_ Chaos answered. _"The world needs to see what makes you you."_

"What are you talking about?" Percy asked darkly. "We're in my head, why does it matter what you show? I'm the only one who can see it."

" _Oh, if only you knew how ironic that statement was."_ Chaos chuckled. _"I know five thousand ninety-one people who would disagree."_

"Fine, what's next?" Percy asked dejectedly, his shoulders slumped in acceptance. Chaos winced as the light in Percy's eyes died.

" _How about your visit to the Hall of the mad?"_ Chaos asked, his voice laced with glee. A figure erupted from the ground and gestured for Percy to follow as walls and floors formed out of the primordial mist of Percy's addled mind. _"Your discussion with Mania and Lyssa was quite...touching. I believe that they should be able to rattle some more of your memories."_

* * *

Percy watched as a younger, darker, edgier, and in generally, more damaged version of himself tromped down the hallway, his hands clenching and unclenching in blind rage and a deranged sense that the entire situation was just a convoluted dream. He stepped into a psychiatrist's office and looked around, spotting another door on the other end of the room. _"Fuck this! I'm sick of these stupid illusions. Come out here! We need to talk!"_

" _What do you need, Perseus?"_ A voice inquired from behind past Percy. _"We're rather busy here, would you mind scheduling an appointment for a visit in the next three weeks-"_ Percy cut her off with his blade to her throat. He pushed lightly on her throat until she had been backed up into her high-backed chair.

" _I want you to help me."_ Percy took a few quick pants and leaned forward. _"I think I'm having delusions, and I'm just so angry. I keep having this- this- this feeling, like I've done something unforgivable. I can't get it out of my head. Annabeth...is dead…"_

" _Percy, you aren't insane. Annabeth is dead."_ The Percy in the memory frowned and looked at the ground for a moment before looking back up and swiftly decapitating the goddess.

" _Well, then there's no reason to hold back now."_ Future Percy winced and tried to close his eyes, but even as they closed, he could still see the memory from the first person now. He wiped his blade off on the arm of the chair and looked at the gold gushing out of the decapitated head at his feet. He prodded it with his toe once and then shoved his blade into its mouth, flicking it up into the air for him to catch with his hand and stare into its eyes mercilessly. _"This head used to shrink heads. Maybe I'll crush her's."_

 _ **POP!**_

Past Percy stared down at the golden mess that seeped from between his fingers and flicked his hand a few times, splattering chunks of brain matter and an eyeball onto the floor. Two soldiers stepped into the room and were disarmed before they even registered that Percy of the memories had moved. The blood was moving just as fast as it showed in the movie when a limb was removed. They both fell to the ground faster than it usually shows though...maybe it was the fact that he had cut off their legs as well. " _Sorry, I need to get going. I'm late."_

" _Huh, nevermind, not as touching as I remember…"_ Chaos paused and Percy could practically hear him shrug. _"Oh well, how about them Amazons, they were cool."_

"I killed thirty of them during my training."

" _It was in the Coliseum, they didn't expect to escape alive, did they?"_ Chaos replied jovially. Percy 2.0 resisted the urge to facepalm and simply walked toward the light. Chaos stopped suddenly and sighed loudly, looking dejected. _"Percy. We need to have a serious conversation. Stop here."_

Percy stopped again and looked at the hovering apparition. "What do you want?"

" _I'm not an inherently bad guy Percy."_ Chaos began, looking down and swallowing thickly. _"I'm a bad person, but not because of my maniacal desire to rule the world. I just do evil things. I am a bastard, but not because there's nothing I'd rather do, but rather...I'm all-powerful...and I guess it drove me to do bad things."_

Percy snorted derisively and rolled his eyes. "Sure, when I'm bored I love causing torment to other people."

" _I'm doing this because my boredom overwhelmed my morality. I didn't care anymore that I was being cruel because it felt_ _so_ _good. It was like a high that I could keep going as long as I kept coming back and being evil. I became bad because I was bored! I am a bad person, but only because the good side of me was so weak."_ Percy stopped and glared at Chaos, causing the all-powerful deity to cower slightly in shame. _"I don't expect you to stop hating me, but I'll stop now. I can't stop Nyx, or what she has planned, but when you're done...I can send you home. I'll give you a choice. I'll stop altering things, I'll stop bugging you, but you'll remember. I'll send you back to nap time before your fight with Annabeth. You'll remember the adventures, the wonderful things that happened, the friends you made. Or I can send you back without any memories of what has happened. It's like it never happened, or...you can continue to discover the multiverse. You can find worlds beyond your wildest imagination, or you can have Annabeth back. But don't choose now...wait, think...and please...try not to hate me."_

Percy paused for a while in thought and shook his head. "Take me through the rest of my memories. I'll consider it when we're done, but I can't stop hating you. Probably never will."

The pair continued to walk to the light, passing into it and ending up in a warehouse. _"There's no reason to watch the training again, it'll come back to you. But this conversation you had with Hylla, it's important. You'll need it to heal"_

"Let's do this."Percy cracked his neck masculinely and marched toward the pair that sat on the floor.

" _So, Percy...You've spent quite a bit of time in the arena, but not every match is going to be officiated like ours. In fact, a lot of the time, fights aren't going to be like ours at all. There's going to be sabotage, there's going to be dirty hits, there's going to be ball shots, there's going to be distractions in the form of flirting, crying, faked injuries, all sorts of things. So you need to learn to do the same. You are a weapon."_

" _Please tell me we aren't going to go full_ Karate Kid, _are we?"_ Hylla rolled her eyes and sighed.

" _No, I'm talking about using your sexuality as a weapon."_ Percy gave her a suggestive look and she slumped in disappointment. _"I'm going to teach you how to flirt in the middle of the battle. I'm going to teach you erogenous zones to exploit in battle to distract and throw off your opponent. This is just as weird for me as it is for you. I'm just as opposed to flirting with you as freaking possible, so don't read into it."_

" _You sure know how to make a guy feel special, don't you."_ Percy smirked and rolled his neck, gesturing for Hylla to lead the way.

" _This is going to be awkward as Hades."_

Hylla was right. It was awkward. Hylla and Percy flirted, and flattered and in general tried to fluster their opponent for months, each learning some things they'd rather not know about each other. Time sped up for Percy 2.0 and Chaos as they watched old Percy and Hylla practice skills that Percy 2.0 still used. "I'm kinda bored." Percy 2.0 muttered, rolling his eyes as the final day came and the duel began. "I remember that Hylla groped me and finally won. I remember-" He cut himself off and his eyes widened. "I remember that Ares shows up as soon as the match is called and he kills dozens of Amazons...I remember trading my life for Hylla's."

" _Well, that's not how I remember that. Anyway, the important stuff you have down?"_ Chaos asked hesitantly. Percy nodded and rubbed his brow again. _"Well...the rest of your memories aren't really important. You'll get them back over time, or you could read the book."_

" _What book?"_

" _Ah, nevermind. Continuing. You're going to wake up back with Ren. I know Rick promised you that your memories would be there in Port's room, but actually, just look for your scarf and your briefcase. Those are actually in there now."_ Chaos paused nervously. _"I'm about to say something that's going to make no sense, but-...I love you."_

Percy opened his mouth to retort, but before he could, he opened his eyes and was laying in an infirmary bed with a throbbing headache.

"Oww…"

Ren leaned over him and frowned. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Your concern is touching, but…" Percy nodded side to side slowly in a 'sorta' gesture and closed his eyes again. He slid his body to the side and cracked his neck again, and then his arms and his back and finally his knuckles. "Judging by the cracks, I've been out for a while. How long?"

"Two days, Mr. Jackson." Ozpin entered the room in typical mysterious fashion and positioned himself at the foot of the bed. "You're quite lucky that Mr. Lie was so quick on his feet. If you had stayed in the practice room much longer, you would have undoubtedly ended up in a coma. Now, back to Mr. Lie's question. How much do you remember?"

"Everything will come soon, but for now, just the really important stuff. Like most of my life before- err, Beacon." Percy paused and looked around again. "Where's everyone else?"

"I encouraged them to go about their business." Ozpin paused and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Miss Schnee, Miss Xiao Long, and Miss Rose are in the ballroom, preparing for the dance, though half-heartedly, and Miss Belladonna is in the library."

Ren nodded to professor Ozpin and then to Percy before stepping out of the room. Percy looked up to Ozpin and asked softly. "Professor…?"

"Yes Mr. Jackson?" Ozpin responded kindly, sitting in the chair beside Percy's bed.

"You remember those stories you read for me before?"

"About the heroes?"

"Yeah...can you tell those again?" Percy inquired demurely, sidling back into the pillows.

"Yes, I believe I can, but when I'm done, you should go find your team. They need to know you're alright." Ozpin smiled at Percy's miniscule nod. Meanwhile, just outside the door, Glynda frowned deep in thought before smiling widely, causing those around her to gape in surprise. Glynda hadn't heard Ozpin smile in quite a while, but Percy seemed to be tearing down his barriers one by one.

* * *

"And that is how Jason managed to navigate the sea of monsters." Ozpin finally finished his last story, leaving his enraptured audience of one to simply smile in the deep miasma of imagination that he had been submerged in. "Now, I want you to go find Team RWBY and apologize for scaring them. They haven't been in the best of moods since you've had your accident."

"Neither have I. I've been unconscious." Ozpin closed his eyes in exasperation, as emotive as the enigmatic man could get and gestured for Percy to leave the infirmary. Percy stood up and looked down at his chest and frowned. "Did you give me a tattoo while I was out?"

"No." Ozpin stood and saw what Percy was referring to. "I believe that is something you've had for a while. Perhaps your memories of that will be restored eventually, however, many people believe the owl to be the symbol of Athena, and it carries the crossed bow and trident...well, this can be translated into a blessing of three deities. But more on that later, for now, find team RWBY."

"Got it." Percy hopped out of the room quickly, grabbing his T-shirt as he closed the door, sliding it on as he slipped past shocked nurses and gaping doctors. He rammed through the doors and found himself outside, whipping his head left and right as he excitedly scanned the ground for his friends.

He then realized he was lost. He saw a pair of passing students and recognized the girl instantly, absolutely enthused at his sudden increase in memory power. He quickly dashed over to her side and pulled her into himself. "Hi, you're Emerald, right?"

"Yeah?" She looked over his shoulder at Mercury's hunched form, growling silently as he clutched his stomach in laughter.

"Where's the library?" He still felt like he was floating on cloud nine until another memory came back. They just weren't stopping. "Did you just pick my pocket?"

"No."

"Oh well, I'm broke anyway." Emerald rolled her eyes, pulled away and pointed the library out to Percy before continuing her journey with Mercury. "Thanks for your wallet, by the way." She patted her back pocket and growled, looking at the empty wallet that had replaced her own.

"Screw him."

Percy didn't hear her last comment, he was too busy analyzing the wallet. There was something wrong with it, like when you try to stare into a light too long and you need to blink. He felt like he wasn't supposed to be looking at it. It seemed to be…-

"Shrouded in Mist." Percy stared harder, his eyes squinting as his stare turned into a glare. He barely managed to avoid a crash with another student, but finally he figured it out. "Ichor. This thing is practically dredged with dried ichor." He threw open the door to the library and let his eyes skim around the room, searching for one of his favorite brunettes.

There, in the corner, Blake was glaring down at a computer screen with all the ferocity of a mountain lion. Silently (or as silently as he could), he skittered through the book cases and hopped onto a chair beside her, loudly skidding up beside her. "Good afternoon."

"I'm not interested Ya- Percy?!" Blake finally looked up from her research and nearly collapsed when she stood up too quickly. Percy caught her and lifted her into his arms, observing the huge black bags beneath her eyes. He rolled his eyes before quickly carrying her off deeper into the library to find a semi-comfortable couch before (delicately) tossing her onto it and sitting beside her legs. "Percy, now's not the time! I have rese-"

Percy quietly placed a finger on her lips and frowned. "If you move, I will find you, and I will bring you back here, now shush." He quickly skipped away to find the rest of team RWBY. Blake began to get up again, only to be pushed back down by a silent hooded figure.

"You need to hear what happens next, so let's talk." The hooded figure squatted in front of Blake and sighed. "If I tried, I could just send all of the information I'm about to share straight into your head, but you need context, so please listen to me. I have answers."

Blake hesitated at the word answers. She needed answers, she needed lots of answers...maybe she could hear them out…

* * *

Meanwhile, Percy was finding himself lost yet again. He looked around and spotted a vaguely familiar pair wandering through the pavilion, yet again. He traipsed over towards them and once again marvelled at how fantastic it was to have his memories back again. "You must be Cinder!"

"What the-?!" Her eyes narrowed and widened at the same time and she felt every muscle in her body scream. She remembered everything that The Lady had said about this boy, and considering what The Lady herself could do, she knew that she was no match for him here. "Y-yes, that's me. What- ahem, what do you need?"

"Where's the ballroom?" Those intense green eyes refused to let her go, so even as she tried her hardest to open her mouth, or point in the proper direction, or anything, all she could focus on was how much she felt like she was suffocating, or maybe drowning. He smiled and his eyes grew blindingly bright, piercing through her and tearing apart her darkness encrusted soul.

"South-east building…" She responded, trying to swallow the thick lump in her throat. As the boy walked away, she spotted a glowing green symbol above his head, but as he moved, it seemed to rotate like a dice, turning gray, and then silver, and finally a bright, fiery red.

The rest of the day, Cinder Fall was unable to stop her hands from shaking.

* * *

Percy, of course, didn't know that, so he spent the rest of the day in complete ignorance to the pain he caused, until he finally found Team RWBY in the ballroom. "Ah! Just who I wanted to see! Weiss, Yang, Ruby, we need to go to the library!"

"Aw, I hate the library." Ruby whined.

"Don't tell me you've become obsessed with researching the White Fang as well." Weiss was unconvinced.

"The who now?"

"Come on, Blake's probably there anyway." Yang encouraged. The three shared a look and nodded conspiratorially.

"Let's go. Leave no teammate unhelped." Ruby said seriously.

"Unhelped isn't a word, Ruby." Weiss said distractedly. "But I too am worried about Blake."

"Come on then, I'll take you there." Percy began whistling as he lead them across campus, but was soon stopped when Weiss whacked him over the head.

"Stop that." She growled.

"Sorry." He responded. He looked up at the looming facade of the building and smiled. "We're here."

Leading the team to the corner of the library was easy, getting Blake to listen was a different story.

"You just had to bring everyone, didn't you?" Blake asked angrily, trying to get up from her place on the couch, but Percy and Yang simply pushed her back down. Percy sat at her feet and kept her trapped there as Yang gently placed Blake's head on her lap, running her hand through Blake's obsidian locks. "Can't you understand that I need to do this?"

"I think you're going to drive yourself to death." Yang supplied. "What happens when you do find out what's happening? What would you do if Roman Torchwick walked in to this room right now?"

"I'd fight him." Blake growled, trying to sit up, only to be pushed back down easily by Percy.

"You'd lose."

"No! I would stop him!" Blake tried to sit up again, but Yang pushed her back down.

"You can't even stop me!"

"Blake! Think about this logically!" Percy demanded.

"Oh, that's rich, _Seaweed Brain_. Logic? Tha-" She stopped as Percy stood, tears flowing down his cheeks. He picked her up by her collar and growled carnally at her.

"When you lose sleep, what happens?"

"I- I don't know?"

"You get weaker, and your grades slip, what happens then?"

"I don't know."

"You fall behind in class. What then?"

"I. Don't. Know."

"You're forced to retake tests and you're held back a year. What then?"

"I don't know!"

"You fall behind on your training. You stagnate. What about then?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"You're forced to drop out...then where will you get your training? Where will you finally gain the skills to defeat Roman Torchwick?!"

"I don't know…" Blake whispered. She looked exhausted, her eyes were even more dim than when they started. "So what do I do?"

"You go to bed, get a solid ten hours of sleep, and you take a day off. I'll cover your shift if it'll make you feel better." He gave her a somber smile before he lifted her off her feet and growled at her. "But you never, NEVER, call me that again."

"Only one person can call me that, and she's dead, so don't try it again." Blake barely held back a whimper as Percy glared into her soul.

"Can you tell us about her?" Yang asked, knowing that talking about deceased loved ones was never easy, but it needed to be done. "I mean, I don't want to pry-"

"No, it's fine. But not now. After the dance." He placed Blake on her feet, barely keeping her from falling to her knees. "For now, I need to see a mustache about a scarf and a brief case."

…

"Was that a euphemism?" Blake asked.

"I hope so..." Weiss muttered. Ruby stared off into the distance and wondered to herself.

"What's a euphemism?"

"I'll tell you when you're older."


	10. Chapter 10

So, I do this a lot because I've just gone through some serious creative writing classes and I want to stretch my wings again, so I'm going to start rewriting a few of my stories.

Dust of the Earth: Dust of the Earth will no longer be part of the Princes of the Multiverse shtick.

Cowboys and Huntsmen: This will be rewritten and revamped to avoid Gary Stu-ing Jaune. Also, the Yang thing blew up way too quickly.

Son of Metis: Seriously back burner material.

I've also developed a new story which will be up soon. If you like it, review and tell me what you think.


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